Condor I: The Venus Extrapolation
by Bozhestvennym
Summary: [Takes place during Forsaken] "You'd think the Taken would've learned by now not to tamper with things they don't understand. Well," Ikora sighed, "If you must, Guardian, take the fight to them. Take it to Venus. Take it to the Taken. Become legend." [Strong Language, Mildly Suggestive Themes]
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

_THE VAULT OF GLASS_

"How much you wanna bet this thing isn't gonna go down as easy as it did last time?" Josh asked the team. The combined fireteam force, fireteams Cobra and... well, Josh's unofficial team hadn't yet been named (but they were thinking "Condor") were assembled just ahead of Atheon's chamber. They knew the fight ahead would be difficult. The Titan turned to address his team again, sliding another shell into his shotgun. There was Taken goo everywhere, ruining the one thing the Vault used to have going for it - the views. The two fireteams had slugged their way through the familiar Vault, yet it felt so different throughout. The Taken had encroached on it before, but Atheon had been _dead_. And suddenly, he was alive and well again, causing an issue for the Vanguard.

"Nobody's got any cold feet, do they?" he joked.

"No, no, I just..." someone spoke up. It was the other male on the team. An Exo. Eta-10. He'd had a knack for getting himself into undesirable situations. He spoke up again, "It's just... this is it. We've actually made it to the endgame. It's pretty mind-blowing. Never thought we'd make it this far, to be honest."

"Hey," a blonde woman spoke in the back, "Don't get too hung up on anything, we've still got whatever's ahead of us to face. We have no idea what to expect through that door," another Guardian confirming her sentiment.

"Really?" the Exo replied, glancing to face her, "Come on, we've all seen it."

"Not really," A shorter Awoken woman spoke up in reply, "Sure, we've seen the chamber. We've seen Atheon. But... we don't _really_ know what's in there." She fumbled a little bit, grumbling. But she stepped forward. "But if anyone's going to face it, it's going to be us. We've come this far! There's no way in hell I'm turning back now."

Josh nodded stepping ahead a bit to the one who hadn't spoken up yet. "Hey," he whispered, "I'm really glad you got back okay," he said as he lifted his finger to her chin, bringing it up to him and catching her gaze. "You good?" he asked, a little concern in his tone.

She smiled, "Yeah, I'm just still a little out of it but... I'll be fine. Let's get in there."

"Good," Josh replied, taking a grand step back to the Vault door. It was looming and imposing. But it was nothing.

"You still worried about Zavala?" she asked him, bringing him back around to focus.

"Yeah, I am, actually," he confirmed, "He wasn't too happy about us going to Venus _once_ , but we've been back and forth and all over so much now I'm just..."

"It'll be okay," she assured, "Just hold on to that. If we make it back to Big Blue, it'll mean we've won. We'll have stopped something huge. Saved the City."

Her confident and assuring smile brought out a resolved smile in his own expression. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Alisa." He turned back to the door, and with a newfound courage spoke to his team, "Let's do this."


	2. Chapter 2: The Citadel

"PC, what have I told you about waking me up in the middle of the night?" the massive behemoth of a Titan moaned from the comfort of his bed aboard his ship. "There are plenty of Guardians who can handle the Dreaming City, you don't need to keep nagging me about it!"

Persephone sighed, as most Ghosts do, as she floated into his view, her bright pink and black shell cast in shadow as she turned on the light from behind her. The Titan turned over in his bed, only to cover his eyes in resistance.

"PC, why is there a spotlight shining into my eyes?" the Titan asked.

"Because this is urgent," the little ghost sputtered, "Josh, I mean it, I need you up _now_!" Her chassis spun around as she fluttered about trying to get her Guardian up.

Josh grumbled, "Fine, but if this is about the Dreaming City again, I'm not interested."

"No," she snapped back, "It isn't, I promise." She proceeded to speed out of the room, of which there were only two on-board the ship.

Josh rolled onto his back and threw off his blanket, as his Ghost turned down the lights. Josh slowly staggered out of bed, being sure to make a scene as he went. He sat for a moment, just breathing the refined air until his senses came to him. He began to long for sleep again, only moments after exiting it. Josh thought to himself, wondering what his fireteam members were doing, no doubt actually getting some sleep.

Before he could ponder any further, his Ghost materialized in front of him, nearly causing him to collapse back on his bed once more. Her singular eye flashed intensely at him, as he cried out, "Persephone! I'm coming, give me a minute!" while he pushed her away from his face as he finally stood firm. The man was built like a machine, his massive muscle structure casting a long shadow on the bulkhead. John spun on his heels and reached into the cupboard above his bed. He dug around for a few moments, Persephone growing more impatient all the while, until he dug out a dark grey t-shirt to adorn his bare chest. As he slid into his attire, his Ghost mumbled something about the bridge and flew off.

* * *

Persephone sped into the cockpit of their jumpship, half expecting Josh to be behind her, but as she spun around, of course he wasn't. Sometimes, she thought, she'd rather have a different Guardian. She turned back around and rose to the ceiling of the chamber. She set her eye on the planet ahead of them. She could see the –

Breaking her thought, Josh stomped into the room, grumbling about some nonsense or another. She sighed, wondering why she ever expected anything more.

"Okay PC, I'm here now, can you tell me why you…" he began, as he set his eyes on he planet. "PC," he began, shaking his head, "why are we staring at Venus?" He turned to look at her, as she vigorously stared back.

"Look," she whispered.

Josh grumbled and sighed, "Okay, fine, whatever makes you happy." He scanned the planet, and he could tell that something was off, sure but he hadn't a clue what it was. "I don't see anything, PC, what am I supposed to be looking at?" he inquired.

She sighed in frustration, turned back to Venus and highlighted the Ishtar Sink on his HJD. "There, Josh! Look!" He looked, and he still saw nothing.

"PC, you know my eyes aren't telescopes, right?" Josh pointed out, "Just use your words."

Persephone shook her chassis, "Josh, are you—"

"Look, how about this: we'll go check it out. Sound good?"

She sulked a moment, peering at the floor, then locked eyes again, "Yes."

"Okay, set a course for the Citadel. I have to go armor up." Concluded, Josh began back to his quarters, as Persephone stopped him.

"Do you… really not see anything, Josh?" she asked.

He faced her and somewhat snappily replied, "No, Persephone, I don't. Looks just like it did when we left it two years ago." As Josh left the room, he thought something might be amiss with his Ghost, which he feared. If anything were to happen, he'd be dead for sure. He was still deep in worried thought by the time he'd reached his quarters. He stepped in, and tiredly searched for his armor. He eventually spotted the shine of his helmet in the corner, mostly covered up by the shadow of the terminal next to it. He reached down and took his helmet, holding it in his hands, its black matte barely visible in the dark, but with enough gloss on it to blind a Captain. He glided his hand through the Roman-esque crown.

It'd been weeks since he'd last worn his armor. The loss of Cayde had hurt everyone, probably some even more than Josh, however he'd remained in a depressive state since. The crown of the helmet once belonging to the mythical Saint-14 felt foreign to him.

"Well," he spoke softly to himself, "I guess it's about time…" He placed the helm upon his head, as a crown to a king. He clenched his fists together, confiding within himself, "Let's do this." He felt confident, triumphant, even brave. He was a hero of the Red War, he had been in the fireteam to kill Atheon, he'd even fought Oryx. He might've missed out on a couple events, sure. Maybe he never fought Skolas, and never conquered Aksis, but that wasn't important right now, what was important was that –

"Josh, I know you're feeling all confident and stuff, but uh… you still aren't wearing pants," Persephone interrupted. Josh yelped like a dog who'd had his tail stepped upon, "How long have you been there?!" his pitch increasing by a significant margin.

Persephone chuckled and spun around, "Oh, only for about… the entire time. You know I'm your Ghost, right? I hear _everything_." She made the last line sound like a threat, and very menacing. Josh felt meek, as his cheeks were bright red under his black dome.

Persephone laughed again, and spun her chassis for the fifteenth time and sighed, "Ah, times like these are why I'd never trade you for anyone else," she said, in a way that asserted camaraderie and friendship, while at the same time being condescending. She shouted, "ETA in 15!" , as she flew back to the cockpit, leaving Josh once again alone in his room, half armored and half naked.

* * *

Venus was just as cold as he'd remembered it, Josh thought to himself. The Citadel, too, looked and felt exactly the same. Around it, battle still continued between the endless hordes of Taken and Vex. He still wondered what it was that his Ghost had seen that'd caused so much trouble, and he thought about asking his Exo friend, his best friend in fact, Eta-10 to come take a look, but ultimately decided to wait it out until that seemed necessary.

"So," he inquired, "where to?"

Persephone rotated, scanning the environment. "Hmm," she slowly began, "everything seems normal…"

"PC?" Josh asked again, breaking her from her concentration, "Where are we headed?" She snapped to face the Citadel, "Up there!" she exclaimed, "If there's anywhere I can find answers, it's there."

Josh thought for a moment, remembering the Taken presence there the last time he'd been. But he'd killed the Echo of Oryx, with help of course, and that'd been such a long time ago. It should be clear. He readied his weapon, a relic from before the Red War.

His Ghost scoffed, " _That_ old thing?" gesturing to his weapon, the Red Death.

He broadened his shoulders, and looked her in her eye, "Yes, PC, I'm using Red Death. We haven't been here since before the Red War, so why not? It'll be like a throwback Thursday!" he said giddily.

She sighed, "Josh, today is Monday," she barely managed to get out before he put his finger to her frame and shushed her. Josh proceeded to comeback with, "It's Thursday somewhere." Persephone symbolically rolled her eye in response as Josh grinned under his helmet.

Having landed opposite the spire, Josh stepped forward only to stop and gaze on the battlefield. Dead Vex littered the ground, and there were probably dead Taken, somehow. A couple of Goblins to his right were still engaged with a Taken Knight ahead of them. To his left, there ran a Taken Vandal to support his Knight and fight the Goblins. Ahead of him, a pair of Harpies, followed by a Minotaur, came to mop up the Taken.

"You think the Vex have this handled, PC?" jokingly asked Josh.

"No," she shook her shell, "I think they might need some help. Why don't you lend them a hand?" A smirk fell upon Josh's face, as he instinctively popped out his magazine to check that it was full and, seeing that it was, reinserted it into his weapon and took aim at the nearest target, which happened to be the Taken Vandal. The Taken nor the Vex had yet took notice of his presence, so he had a nice opportunity to line up the perfect one-shot-kill for the Vandal.

 _Pop pop pop_!

The burst rang out from his pulse rifle, as the three bullets impacted against the Vandal's cranial region, instantly purging it from existence. The remaining Taken Knight and the Vex around it stopped shooting, and turned to look at what used to be another dark spec in the cosmos… and Josh.

Josh lowered his rifle, his arms waving, "Hey, I know, it's been a while," he began, as he pulled out an SMG with his left hand and proceeded to pepper the Taken Knight with small caliber rounds, "But, ya know, it's good to be back!" The Knight roared in anger, and rushed at Josh, launching a Goblin out of its way and into a nearby wall. The Knight launched a boomer round intended for Josh, but he was already airborne, and by the time the shell arrived at its destination, Josh had smashed into the Knight from above, sending it screaming back to the Ascendant Realm.

"Now," he inquired, "Who's next?"

The Minotaur took his offer first, motioning the Harpies to stay behind it and provide covering fire. "That's fine," said Josh, "Just know I've learned a couple new tricks while I've been gone." The Titan proceeded to put his Arc energy together into a Towering Barricade ahead of him. "Come on, big fella," Josh motioned to the behemoth of machinery, "I'm ready."

The Minotaur charged into the shield, momentarily stunned but determined to destroy this worthless vermin. The machine brought down its torch hammer onto Josh's head, making a big dent in Saint-14's glorious Helm.

"Oh!" exclaimed Josh, "Well, that's just rude!"

The Harpies began laying down suppressing fire, forcing Josh to flee behind stone for cover. He sighed. _They always have to make it difficult_ , he thought. He walked out from behind the cover, the Vex's poor aim not accomplishing much. He put one foot back, preparing for a full-on sprint. He wondered if they knew what he was about to do. _Maybe they simply accepted their inevitable demise_ , he cheekily thought to himself. Josh took a deep, singular breath, and then began to sprint at the Vex as fast as he could. He ran right past the advancing Minotaur, past the Harpies, past them all, and took the chance to hide behind a Vex column.

"PC, check if they're pursuing or not," he asked of his Ghost as he opened his palm, bringing her to bear. She nodded, in whatever way Ghosts do, and scurried off below. She slowly hovered up from behind the Vex, to see them already becoming disinterested in their prey that had scurried off. The remaining Goblin went over to check the status of the other Goblin which was, of course, already dead.

"No, they lost interest, are you still going to— "as has become the norm between these two, Josh cut her off by soaring over the column and igniting with Arc energy, slamming into the pair of Harpies, before sliding into the Minotaur and crushing it into the ground. He still had some charge left, so he flew to his side and pounded into the Goblin. _The machine's screeches were awful_ , Persephone thought.

Josh stood there, breathing heavily, taking in the foreign air and the scene he'd just created. Finally, after some time, he turned to look at his Ghost, and smiled under his mask as he made his way to her. She was still hovering above the railing, somewhat taken aback by his preemptive usage of Fist of Havoc.

"You know," she scolded him, "you could've saved that for later. Who knows what we'll find up there?"

He brushed her off, saying, "Yeah, but what are the odds that there's even anything there?" as he continued across the bronze Vex bridge to the Citadel. As he came upon it, he was reminded of its oddity. It had always been such an awkward entrance. There was no door, just a hole two meters off the ground and some stairs leading into a corridor. He'd never even seen any Vex actually enter or exit it. Although, he figured they could just teleport inside if they desired. That, however, prompted him to think of the innate possibility of Vex warping to his position inside the Citadel. He could handle it, though, he thought.

As he stepped forward, before the hole, he caught a glimpse of something on his motion tracker. He stopped, and made a show out of looking around. He saw it again, but in the other direction, and then another blip behind him.

"PC, do you see anything?"

"Uhh…," she awkwardly started, "no?"

"Okay," he exhaled in relief, "must be motion from above or below then."

He continued to the entrance, and jumped up, grabbing onto the edge. As he pulled himself up, he kept seeing movement on his radar. _Weird_ , he thought. Pressing on, he gazed at the familiar corridor, full of boring stone and random Vex particles. Looking to his motion tracker, the movement had stopped. He began to have a senses of unease, like the room was full of Marauders.

Hoping it would calm his nerves, he requested his machine gun from his stash. He had 100 rounds ready for anything that would come his way, split into a full drum mag of 53 rounds and 47 reserve rounds. He brandished his relic of a weapon, shining in Fallen blue, simply to make himself more at ease.

Everything was exactly as it'd been before, or at least it appeared as such. There were a couple of Vex bodies strewn about, looking to have been as such for quite a while. Josh crept to one of the bodies, a Goblin, and knelt beside it. The thing's gun seemed to have been cut off by… blowtorch? Josh cracked his head to the side to check the other Vex body in the room, a Hobgoblin, and, sure enough, its line rifle was missing.

"So," he inquired, "What, uh… what was it you saw from orbit, PC?" as he stood back up, preparing to enter the chamber ahead.

"Taken Blight," she chirped, "very large, obviously, since I could see it from space. Although, it wasn't actually visible from that far, of course, as you've pointed out, I guess I just… zoomed in? If that makes sense."

"So… why the Citadel, then?"

"Josh, I'm not sure if you're aware, but the Citadel is pretty high up. It'll give us a vantage point to try and find it."

"You think it moved?"

"No," she replied, annoyed, "but I couldn't get a solid read on its position, almost as if it wasn't entirely there."

"Well, we're…" Josh began as he rounded the corner into the atrium. There the gravity lift up to the Citadel was, up ahead, but it wasn't on. In fact, it was covered in Taken goo, and atop it sat a Taken Blight.

"Oh…" Persephone began.

"… that's bad," Josh finished.

The whole room, actually, looked as if someone had taken a giant paint can full of Taken goo and splattered it against the walls and floor. Oddly enough, the pile of dead Vex from years ago still laid there in front of the lift, and hadn't been touched by any Taken slime. The pair walked ahead, stepping over strewn about Vex bodies, none of which had been active in years. As they reached the control console, they heard shuffling behind them. Josh snapped around, his cheek already resting on the stock of his machine gun, prepared to fire. His finger was tapping against the trigger, almost about to pre-fire. He stood, unmoving, for many moments, until he saw it – that brief glimpse, a shimmer, among the nothingness. He squeezed the trigger down hard, sending out at least 40 rounds in a matter of seconds, almost emptying his magazine, but he knew he'd got it. He knew he'd hit.

The distinctive cry of a Taken echoed through the chamber, and it was apparent that the thing had once been a Minotaur, now shimmering in and out of view. It retained its torch hammer from its glory days as a Vex war machine, and began firing on the Titan. The Titan rolled to his right, and popped back up above a stone slab and emptied the remaining 13 rounds of his magazine into the beast, to which it visibly staggered, momentarily losing its shroud of invisibility. The Titan pulls back his free hand, channeling Arc energy into it, and thrusts his arm forward, sending an Arc fueled grenade directly into the Taken. Assuming that the pulse grenade will handle the Minotaur, he turns his attention back to the lift and, to his dismay, it doesn't look the same. No, rather, the Blight has spawned more Taken – Thrall. The Thrall proceed towards the Titan. He pulls his machine gun back up, and tosses out the spend magazine, and loads in his remaining drum. The room flashes with Solar light as he cuts through the Thrall. They scream as they are punished and sent back to the Ascendant Realm.

Josh, feeling the engagement complete, stows his now empty machine gun, and reequips his pulse rifle. He takes aim once more, now, at the Blight. He pours burst after burst into the Blight until it eventually shrinks and collapses in on itself. Suddenly, the Vex lift flashes and sputters back to life. The weary Guardian emits a sigh of relief, lowering his guard yet again.

"That was close," commented Persephone.

"Yes," Josh coolly replied, "Yes it was."

His Ghost spun into view, "You know there's probably a whole army of them up there, right?" she said, chuckling.

"Yeah," Josh stoically responded, "but I'm sure I can –," but before Josh could finish his statement, his entire person went flying across the room, having been thrown by some big, bad, large –

"God damnit, I forgot about the Minotaur!" Josh shouted in pain as he limped off of the ground. His gun had fallen out of his grasp while flying, so Josh had to resort to the SMG he had wrapped to his thigh; however, as he reached for it, he took a direct hit from a torch hammer round. He shouted an expletive, and put his energy into a Towering Barricade to shield him from further blasts. He could see the shimmer as the machine rumbled towards him, but took the time to take a few deep breaths as he finally took his remaining weapon and trained it onto his foe. Right as the unsuspecting Taken stormed through the barrier, suddenly stunned, the Titan poured an entire 30-round magazine into its core. The robot staggered backwards, again falling into the stunning effect of the barrier, as Josh slammed another magazine into the gun and sent another 30 rounds of damage into his enemy. The Minotaur, having none of this, raised its torch hammer and immediately fired a shell into Josh's chest. The Titan nearly fell over at that very moment, but managed to pull together the energy to jump over the Minotaur and force another magazine into his SMG and out through the barrel into the machine. Before the last few rounds had even landed, the Taken collapsed and spun out of existence. The Titan landed on the floor, and immediately fell over.

"PC," Josh whispered.

"Yes?" his Ghost responded as she hovered above him giggling.

"Call Eta," Josh sputtered out, before completely passing out on the floor.


	3. Chapter 3: Afraid of Heights

**Hey y'all, sorry Chapter 3 took so long to get out, I've been quite busy with college applications, but seeing as that should be wrapping up soon, I should have more time to write. Additionally, I'm trying to make my chapters longer, because they feel incredibly short, but I need to work on my writing skills first. Anyways, hope y'all enjoy!**

* * *

"It's been a while since we've been to Venus, you sure you're ready?"

The Hunter ignored his Ghost, and continued rummaging through his locker for his gun. There were so many old and obsolete pieces of equipment in the locker, he somehow couldn't find his gun. His bright, white and black, Taken gun.

"Eta, I can –," the Ghost sputtered before being cut off.

"No, Anchor, I don't care if you can transmat it to me, I want to hold my fuckin' Spindle," the Exo replied.

His Ghost looked back at him in confusion, asking, "Don't you mean Whisper of the Worm?"

"Uh…," Eta stopped, "Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that one," he agreed, his Southern drawl insanely apparent.

"It's behind you," advised Anchor, his Ghost, his piercing silver Ghost shell sagging down in annoyance, "and we're going to be late if you don't get ready faster!" Anchor turned away, then shot back as he realized, "Eta!"

Eta sighed, the Exo already exacerbated, "What is it now?"

"Where is your cape?"

Eta grumbled, "First of all, it is a _cloak_ , ya stupid light bulb," he said, pointing his finger at his Ghost, Eta continued, "and secondly," he said, turning to face his companion, "you ain't even set our course yet, numbnuts!"

His Ghost looked sheepishly at the floor, mumbled something and flew off to the cockpit. Eta was glad his Ghost was gone, so he'd finally have some peace. The Exo had been wiped 10 times already, and he thought this Ghost was going to be the reason he became Eta-11.

The room was a mess now, firearms scattered across the floor at random. The Exo sighed, taking in the mess he'd made. It looked as though a tornado had blown through the hull and targeted his weapon's locker above all else. Somehow, the light fixture even seemed to be uneven.

His Ghost shifted back into the doorframe momentarily, witnessed him standing there like an idiot, and called to him, attracting his attention, "Hey, ETA is in 10," before departing back to the cockpit.

* * *

"Hey dummy," spoke a harsh, mechanical, yet oddly Southern voice. Josh opened his eyes, and a large, hooded figure stood above him, completely cast in shadow. His cloak rustled in the breeze.

"Is that you, Eta?" Josh asked of the stranger.

"No, I'm Taniks the Scarred," quipped back the Exo, earning a laugh from the Titan lying on the floor, "Yes, Josh, I'm the only guy you know that talks like a Texan. Now it looks like you," he paused, "could use a hand," he said as he stuck out his hand for the Titan.

Josh sat up, a smile on his face as he reached out and took the offer. "It's good to see you, man," he told Eta as he was helped to his feet.

"Now," the Exo spoke, "Persephone tells me you were passed out after getting your ass kicked by _one_ Taken Minotaur. Is that true?"

Josh looked down, shrugging and sighing, before locking eyes with the robot in a familiar way, "Well, that may be a little bit embellished," he answered as he shot his Ghost a piercing stare, "but yeah, that's the gist of it. I'm sure you noticed all of the Taken –, "

"—SHIT that's all over the place," Eta broke, "I know. I guess you're hankering to head up that there grav lift. That sound right?" He pointed to the Vex lift.

Josh laughed.

"By the Traveler, I will never get over that accent. You're a fuckin robot, man," commented Josh, adding, "But yeah man, Persephone wanted to get a good look at the area."

"I'd guess so, there _was_ a huge-ass Taken Blight around here."

"Oh, come on… you saw it too?" Josh moaned.

The construct laughed, "Yeah man, I could see that thing all the way from space!"

Josh turned to his Ghost, receiving a condescending glare, and sighed, "That's what PC said before we got here," to which the Hunter broke down laughing.

He'd almost managed to get some control of himself, able to get out, "Wait, could-," before breaking into another fit of laughter. Finally, Eta was able to ask, "Could you not see the Blight?" prompting the Titan to shake his head in reply.

"Sad!" exclaimed Eta, uncharacteristically losing his Southern drawl for a moment, sounding more like a pre-Collapse dictator, as he pointed his finger at the Titan, walking backwards into the grav lift. "Yeet," said the Hunter, as he dabbed while flying up the lift.

"What the…," Josh began to ask, immensely perplexed.

"Those Exos…," Persephone spoke for the first time in a while, "they're from before the Collapse, remember? They… are a different breed."

"Figured," Josh concluded, as he ran forward into the lift, characteristically Titan.

* * *

"It's just as breathtaking as I remembered it," Josh reminisced upon reaching the apex. The beautiful Venusian skyline below and around them, the two Guardians stood in awe of its glory, until one of them saw it.

"Yeah," Eta remarked, "but there's Taken shit up here, too."

Some of the platforms that once phased in and out of reality were missing, others shrouded in Taken darkness. Eta walked to edge of the platform they'd reached, taking a look down at the ground so far below. Ever marching were the Vex militias rallying against the Taken invaders down below.

"Alright PC," Josh began as he summoned his Ghost from phase, "see anything?"

"Yeah," she chirped back, "there's some Taken activity up ahead. Let's check it out." The Titan nodded in reply, letting his Ghost fall back in his hand as he collapsed it around her, allowing her to stow back in phase. He turned back, not anticipating the Hunter's speed, as he'd already vanished. Confused, Josh turned his attention forward again, momentarily catching a glimpse of his friend upon one of the Vex platforms. The Titan blinked, and the Hunter was gone again. He groaned, anticipating the jumping puzzle. _At least I'm not a Warlock_ , he thought, scoffing.

Eventually, Josh made it to the middle of the jumping puzzle, where Eta was waiting for him. As Eta walked forward to ask Josh what had taken him so long, they both heard the distinctive sound of Taken portals. Josh turned around, and saw the distinctive figure of a Phalanx before –

* * *

It was cold. And… dark. Josh struggled to get his bearings. Everything felt numb. He tried to take in his surroundings, but it just made his head hurt. He tried to close his eyes, but he couldn't feel them.

Suddenly, he could tell he was in a forest. He stumbled forward, or was it backwards? He couldn't tell. Everything was dark, the trees just barely visible against complete blackness. He wandered around, nearly tripping over the massive root of a grand tree. He gazed up at the tree, but he couldn't discern anything. Everything just looked vague.

In the distance, though, he thought he could see something bright. Slowly, it crept towards him, as it began to engulf him in brilliant white light. He could barely make out the texture. It was unmistakably Taken. It approached him, as it came into focus, everything else still a blur. He could make out its shape, something he saw regularly on his travels. It was a very large… machine. He couldn't think of the word right now. Its chest glowed blue and white, shifting between machine and minion.

They stared at each other for a time. Josh almost thought it asked something of it, but it had no mouth, no voice. He heard nothing, but –

* * *

Josh jolted awake, left with the thought of a single word: _Vex_. Awake he sat now, coughing his lungs out as he spat out blood. He looked ahead and saw his Hunter friend jamming a fresh magazine into his scout rifle, pulling back the charging handle.

"Hey," the Exo quipped cheerily, "you're awake! Welcome back to the land of the living!" he exclaimed, his arms wide as if this were some grand occasion. Josh, however, looked pale, and shaken.

Eta's expression changed. He strode over to his friend, still lying on the Vex metal. He looked down at him. "You good?" asked the Hunter, reaching his arm out to help his friend up. As the Titan stood, he solemnly nodded, lowering his gaze to his belt to grab his helmet. Out of phase, his Ghost flew to his side, her shell depressingly drooping.

"Are you sure?" Persephone asked, having remained silent for quite some time. Her eye pierced Josh. He felt weak, but refused to show it, so he stared onwards. The vast expanse of Vex architecture suddenly took him aback. The skies were dark and gloomy, yet bristling with light from meteorites and volcanic activity on the horizon. Comets soared past the massive volcano, Olympus Mons. Bright and blue, they twinkled as they soared by, trailed by ice. An array of colors they shined against the Venusian sky. One of them shined more importantly than the rest, fervently displaying its bright red shell. _Shell? That wasn't right_ , he thought at first. Josh saw Eta turn to face the sky. Suddenly, it appeared to be moving closer, and then –

"The Red Legion?" bewilderedly commented Eta, "Why are they here?" he finished, as the metal ball previously believed to be a comet collided with the steel of the Vex platform ahead. The platform was the hub, with at least 7 different Vex portals along its walls. Unfortunately, there were no Vex, but Taken moving amongst them.

The metal pod shimmered and collapsed as three Red Legion Legionaries stood in its wake. The Legionaries were part of the Cabal, the mighty alien empire that had previously attempted to destroy the solar system. _Why were they on Venus?_ , Josh thought, somewhat still entranced. The lumbering soldiers took it upon themselves to begin firing on the Taken, as two more Red Legion pods smashed into the platforms, reinforcing the Cabal attack force with Phalanxes and more Legionaries. A shootout had started between the Taken and their attackers. The team, though, couldn't see much from their position, so Eta suggested they get moving.

"Don't wanna miss the action, do ya?" reinforced Eta to Josh, as he jumped from platform to platform, eventually arriving at the hub. Josh stood there, still numb.

Now that Eta was gone, Persephone floated up again, "Josh, what happened? You're shaking." Now that his Ghost had pointed it out, he realized that he was, in fact, shivering. Her tone was worried, "You look like you've seen a Gatelord," she said, half joking, awkwardly laughing as she spoke.

"Funny you should mention that," Josh finally spoke back.

"Whoa whoa whoa, what do you mean?" his Ghost asked.

"When that Taken Phalanx … what did it actually do?"

"It shot you off the platform with its shield gun."

"Ah, right. Well, when the Phalanx shot me off, obviously I died. But usually when I die, I still hear you, and I just can't see anything. It's usually just like nothingness. But when I died, I was… somewhere. Reminded me of the forest back at the shard of the Traveler a little bit, actually," he paused.

"What did you see?" Persephone asked, concerned,

"I-I don't know, everything was so—" Josh began, his voice beginning to quiver.

"Hey shithead!" Eta called out, interrupting their dialogue, "Get your ass over here and help me out!" Josh's discovery would have to wait, it would seem. He was still pretty shaken, but he had to help.

"Alright," he sighed, still unsure of himself, "Give me everything you've got, PC."

She nodded her shell in reply, drifting away as she reappeared back in his head. He stepped back, suddenly infused with Arc light. He soared through the sky, a bolt of lightning in its purest form. He couldn't think, he just… went. It felt like no time had passed, he was just alone one second and in the middle of the Taken mass at the hub the next. Said Taken mass quickly erupted in Arc light.

"Took ya dang long enough!" shouted Eta over the various gunfire, "The Cabal are up ahead, I'm thinking that if they don't shoot at us then we don't have to waste the bullets on 'em."

The Titan nodded, summoning his auto rifle, a Hakké model, as he began to tear through the Taken. Around him stood countless Thrall and Psions, the Thrall slowly advancing on him and the Psions giving them covering fire surrounding him. The Titan swung into action, jumping above their fleet of darkness and slamming back into the ground, making a hole in their line. He ran onwards, trying to catch up to his friend. Taken snipers stood atop any vantage point they could get, trying to halt the Guardians' progress. Josh eventually saw Eta, after shoulder charging through a pair of Goblins.

"PC, he needs help!" Josh exclaimed, seeing the Exo down on the ground, surrounded by Thrall and being sniped by Vandals. A Taken Captain approached him from afar, slowly working its way to the helpless Hunter. Persephone, knowing what he wanted, brought Josh's heavy machine gun out of phase. He clutched the weapon in one hand, and in the other tried to pull enough energy to charge a pulse grenade. _Where were the Cabal?_ Josh reflected. He thrust his arm out, launching a grenade charged with Arc light directly onto his friend. It'd keep them off of him, though, the Titan knew. He finally grasped the grip of his machine gun with his free hand, holding it down as he squeezed the trigger, laying round after round into the Thrall encircling the Exo. Solar energy volleys continued to pierce Eta's position, however, as the Vandals continued firing wire rifles. The Titan lifted his hefty weapon up, taking aim at the snipers, giving each one a single burst to conserve ammunition.

Almost as if on cue, he then heard the distinctive screech of a Taken Captain's blinding bubble as it leapt to Josh's position. He reflexively lifted his arm to shield him, being able to see nothing. On his HUD, though, he could see Eta's revive timer at his Ghost – he'd be ready in a few seconds. Josh sprinted to Eta's position, past dead Vex and Cabal, clutching Anchor tightly in his hand as he collapsed to the floor, curling up to protect the Ghost shell as he revived his teammate. Light fading, Josh could feel the Captain sending another volley of Blight his way. He knew he'd done it though, as he felt Anchor disintegrate through his hand, returning to phase as Eta spawned anew in front of the Titan.

"Come on, get up!" Eta shouted as he readied and fired off three rounds from his… Taken sniper rifle?

"Whisper of the Worm" Persephone told him, "It was a relic from the Taken War, but it's recently been revitalized." He'd forgotten about her, as usual, but silently thanked her for snapping him back to focus. He slowly stood, trying to pull his energy together for another grenade, but it was no use – it needed more time to cooldown. Josh did, however, have the capacity to shoulder charge. So, he leapt forward, furiously charging towards the Captain. Eta briefly turned to see his friend, and stepped out of the way for he knew what was to come. The Captain, though, was clueless, and locked eyes with the Titan sprinting towards him, and launched a blinding Blight at him. The Titan didn't even flinch – he didn't need to see to keep sprinting straight. The distance between them closed, as the Captain began shambling towards the Titan.

"Josh, wait!" Persephone internally shouted to her companion as he kept charging. Eta took a few more potshots at the Taken, grazing its Solar shield. The two were mere feet apart now, as Josh forced all of his weight forward and slammed shoulder-first right into -

"What?" Josh questions, perplexed. The Captain had vanished. He turned slightly, lifting his rifle to aim now, fearing for the worst, as he spun on his heels only to be met face to face with the Captain as he –

* * *

It was black. Pitch black. Not a light in sight, at first at least. As his eyes adjusted, he at first thought he was in the forest again. This was different. This was familiar, but he couldn't determine why at first. It wasn't vague this time, though. It was clear, and in focus.

He stood on a stone platform, the edge directly behind him. It was a large, open chamber that gave off an air of opulence. It looked foreign, mechanical, yet ancient and mysterious. He should know this place, he thought. Forgotten machines of war lay dead all around him. He looked down for the first time, and realized he was unarmed and unarmored. He lifted his hand up, afront his face, taking the time to inspect it. It seethed with glowing white and black energy, almost… Taken.

For the first time, he suddenly heard a noise. A mechanical clanking. It sounded distant, but militant, like an army of machines marching to war. Almost as startingly as it began, the sound was gone. He stood in silence for a time, contemplating what he'd heard. He thought it sounded like a massive army of Vex rallying, or something. He realized he could think so much more clearly this time, which he hoped was a good thing.

He heard another sound, more continuous and more fluid, but he couldn't tell what it was. He looked ahead. There was a staircase. It looked like stone, or concrete, but it was draped in moss and dirt. Slowly, he climbed the steps, feeling like they would collapse under his feet at any moment. Ascending the steps, they seemed to grow longer the more he looked, but he could tell the noise was getting louder.

 _The Vault of Glass!_ He thought out of nowhere. But he was right. He was in the Vault. He knew it felt familiar, but it was… different, somehow. He certainly didn't remember these steps being any longer than a second's climb, and he felt like he'd been climbing for hours. The room seemed to tilt and warp, and he recognized the sound the instant he reached the top of the steps.

His gaze fell upon a large, black ball, oozing of darkness, outlined in vibrant white light. The Taken Blight, he soon identified, beckoned him, subconsciously. As he approached it, it began to envelop him in entropy and confusion. He saw the figure again. It was Vex. It was… massive. It was Taken, too. Normally, Taken only seethed white and black, but this thing was charged blue, almost as if it channeled Arc light. It looked down upon him as if he were a mere ant to a god.

"Ti psáchneis," he finally heard it speak, a low, menacing, robotic voice.

 _What do you seek?_ The question resonated through him. He could feel it in his bones, in his skin. He hadn't heard it asked, but he'd felt it. He thought this Taken behemoth had originated it, which was spectacularly surprising. Josh didn't know how to react at first. Should he say something? He remained silent until he felt its gaze, as its one eye twisted and contorted, inspecting him, as if beckoning him to speak. Patiently it seemed to wait for a reply. Standing before this once Vex artifact was a treasure trove of data to be had.

It asked the most direct possible question.

"Peace," Josh finally answered, his voice weak in comparison to the power he could feel from what stood before him. The being further contemplated him for some time, the Taken energy flowing through and around it, shifting and changing.

"No," thundered a booming robotic voice, "You seek war."

It disagreed with the answer.

Josh was still staring up at it, when suddenly it was gone. The Blight around him slowed and stopped, falling apart around him. He was alone again, back in the Vault. He sat where the mighty Atheon had once stood. He remembered the how the fight had gone, all those years ago. The whole thing had almost fallen apart when someone popped a bubble right on the center platform, killing 2 people trying to use their Gjallarhorns. But they'd done it. Atheon was dead. Long gone. And yet... that machine, he thought, bore a striking resemblance to the former Time's Conflux. This was unprecedented and, even worse, possibly deadly. Perhaps he'd have to tell the Warlocks about this. They might be able to -


	4. Chapter 4: Exposite

**Hey guys, I know this is a shorter one, but I wanted this little section of essentially exposition to be over as fast as possible. Next chapter will try to be focused around Ikora and, perhaps, a new addition to the fireteam. Chapter 5, in all honesty, won't be action packed either, most likely, unless I condense my plans a little, but it'll pick back up - 5 is gonna be important for the story, though, so it needs to happen. Not everything has to be a battle. Anyways, hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Luminous orange light flooded Josh's vision, as he suddenly opened his eyes. He was staring straight upwards into the Venusian sky, able to visibly see the breeze as it moved past the orange. It appeared that he'd been revived. He could still see glistening comets scuttling across the sky like slugs. Just then, a Ghost flew above him, staring intently at him. He couldn't tell if it was his Ghost or not until it spoke.

"He's awake," the Ghost spoke in its mechanical voice, rotating its shell to face something out of view. Josh cocked his head to get an angle on –

"Two deaths this op, Josh," the figure spoke, also cast in shadow; however, Josh could tell just from the voice alone who the figure was, and relaxed a bit as a result.

"How long was I out?" Josh inquired.

"Few hours," the Exo shrugged, "It took me a little bit to revive you, though. After that Captain impaled you, the Cabal finally decided to remind us that they were there, and they called in some backup." He gestured around them, as Josh sat up, finally noticing the various dead Cabal around him. All bore the markings of the Red Legion, and, oddly, there only seemed to be Legionaries and Phalanxes. No Psions. Their slug rifles were strewn about, as were a couple energy shields.

"They handled the Captain before I could even do anything. When I finally revived you," he continued, "You wouldn't wake up. Persephone suggested we just let you rest, that maybe it'd... I don't know, let you compose yourself more."

Josh sighed, rubbing the back of his head, "Did she tell you?"

As if on cue, she materialized in front of Josh, "Of course I did, Josh! I'm worried about whatever it is you saw. You mentioned it relating to a Gate Lord, and that just…" she trailed off. She sighed robotically, her eye drooping to stare at the floor, upset. Everyone remained silent for a while. Eta turned back to the skyline, stoically. Persephone snuck a glance at Josh.

"Well," he groaned, "It's probably really good that you did that."

Persephone's shell perked up a little bit, fluttering a little.

"Because I saw more. Much more," Josh continued, "And I'm pretty sure there's some strange shit going down on Venus, and I'll tell you all about it, but first... we need to head to the Tower."

Everyone besides Josh looked a little surprised. Eta was the first to speak, "Uhh... if there's something happening, shouldn't we be here? On Venus?" Josh shook his head in reply, turning away from the group.

"No," he answered, "Because there is no way we can do this by ourselves. We're going to need help if we want to get to the bottom of this."

"From who?" inquired Anchor.

Josh sighed, "The Warlocks."

* * *

"So," Eta spoke, breaking the silence that'd overtaken his ship, "You gonna tell us what you saw?" Josh currently resided on Eta's ship as they flew back to the Tower, Persephone piloting his own ship but still available through comms. "You've mentioned it relating to a Gate Lord, but you haven't said much more than that."

"On the contrary, Persephone said Gate Lord, and I said 'funny you should mention that,'" Josh replied, "Because what I actually saw was far worse than a Gate Lord."

Eta slapped his forehead, and groaned, "Then stop dancing around the question," he said, locking eyes with the Titan, "What did you see?"

Josh filled his lungs with the ship's artificial air, taking a deep breath in before exhaling and eventually beginning, "To be honest, the first time wasn't even that eventful. When I went down to the Phalanx, I woke up, but couldn't really tell at first. I felt adrift, ya know? I was standing, though. So I began walking. I don't know how long I walked, but it was pitch black the whole way through, until at some point, it clicked in my head that it was a forest. The trees that surrounded me, though, were barely visible against it, self-illuminated in an almost black. Everything was vague, and I couldn't really make out anything, although, upon reflection, it bore a lot of resemblance to the area surrounding the Shard of the Traveler. Eventually, I saw a light, and it grew closer. As it did, it took shape, but I could also begin to see its texture. Unlike everything else, it was in focus. It was Taken. But it was also... Vex."

"That's not so bad," Persephone chimed in, trying to sound reassuring, but giving away her listening in on his monologue.

"It looked like Atheon," Josh shot back.

Eta's eyes widened. In a low voice, seemingly in shock, he spoke, "Atheon? As in Time's Conflux?"

Josh nodded.

" _The_ Atheon?"

He nodded again.

"Like, big blue mother fucker from the Vault of Glass Atheon? _God of Time itself_ Atheon?"

For the third time, he nodded.

"Hol-ee shit," Eta shouted, losing his cool.

"That's probably bad," Anchor added, still piloting the jumpship.

"Okay," Persephone spoke, "That's bad, we get it. Josh, please. What else did you see?"

Josh collected himself again. "Well," Josh began, "That's actually about it from the first time. I thought it asked me something, but I couldn't tell. Honestly, its nothing compared to the second death, anyways.

"When I got killed by that Captain, I, again, woke up in complete darkness. I could focus though, I could see. I didn't realize it at first, but it was the Vault of Glass. There was a Taken Blight there, and I saw the Taken Atheon... thing again. I saw myself, too. I was unarmed and unarmored, just a Taken mass that looked vaguely human. Anyways, Atheon..."

"What? What did it do?" his Ghost whispered.

"It... spoke to me. I didn't understand it at first, but then I felt it. In my bones. In my muscles. In my head." His voice cracked as he spat out the last words. He paused afterwards, distressed, his face contorted into one of pain and confusion. It remained silent like that for a while. Josh just stared down at the floor. Eta turned away, as he'd had his glowing white eyes locked onto Josh since he'd began his monologue. The only thing audible in the silence was Josh's breathing and the humming of the ship's life support systems.

The silence was broken as Anchor flew back to their rest area on the ship, and he solemnly told the crew, "We're coming up on Earth now. We should be arriving at the Tower in a few minutes." They finished the ride in silence.

* * *

The Tower hangar was noticeably empty when they arrived. It felt extra empty without Cayde there. Even Holliday, host of the Festival of the Lost that was going on, had gone off to bed. Colonel nestled himself next to a portrait of Cayde where he once stood. It was sad. But, understandably, it was late. Not many Guardians would be active this time of night on Earth. The crew hadn't exactly chosen to arrive at an appropriate time. There was, however, a Titan on landing duty, who approached the duo.

The Titan waved his hand in front of him, signalling the two to stop.

"Do you boys happen to have a reason to be arriving to the Tower this late?" he spoke in a deep, gravelly voice. Josh and Eta looked at each other, then back at the Titan.

"Is Ikora available?" Josh asked.

The Titan, Josh's HUD identified as Pierre, sighed and responded, "That does not answer my question, and no, she is not. Now I'll ask again, you two - "

"Listen, shithead," Eta stepped forward and spat, "We don't have time for this bullshit. We need -"

Josh waved his arm in front of his Exo friend, cutting him off, looking him in the eyes. Josh shook his head at Eta, and he backed off, slowly, quietly mumbling obscenities.

Josh turned his attention back to Pierre, "Look, man, we know it's late, and we're sorry, but we just got back from an op, we weren't really looking at the time. We really need to see Ikora."

Pierre looked down at the log in his hand and produced an exasperated sigh, glancing back up at Josh, "Well, I just... I can't give you guys clearance unless you can explain to me why both of your manifest's say that you were on Venus. You know Zavala told everyone that Luna and Venus were off-limits back at the conclusion of the Red War. Rule hasn't changed, they're still banned."

Josh shrugged before replying, "I don't know what to tell you, my Ghost saw something there and wanted me to check it out and, besides, I can kiss Zavala's ass later if I have to, man, but I gotta talk to Ikora."

"Well, she's bound to be asleep," Pierre said, "If you can contact her and get her permission, though, I'll let you through, but otherwise, it might just be best to wait out the night in your ships, Guardians. Get some sleep."

Josh nodded and exhaled, momentarily defeated, "Alright, thanks."

Josh turned back to the ships, but Eta glared in the direction of Pierre as he walked back to his post, just trying to do his job. His look exuded fury - his eyes were burning red, he had that twitch of his right eye Josh always recognized, and his fists were clenched, like he was ready to explode. Josh knew where this was going, and he had to prevent the Hunter from demolishing Pierre.

"Eta, come on, he's right, let's get some sleep."

Eta was practically fuming. He spun on his heels, his boiling red eyes locking with Josh's cool blue. As if on cue, Anchor materialized between the two, looking them both on, before focusing on Eta. Anchor gave him an almost parental look of disapproval. Eta glanced at his Ghost, mumbled something Josh couldn't hear, and let his eyes fade back to their usual brilliant white, relaxing his body.

He saw Anchor point towards their ship, and the two slowly made their way inside. Josh waited until he was sure Eta had gone in before he leapt into his own ship, closing the hatch behind him, waiting for the locking click before proceeding. He shambled through his ship until he got to his bed, throwing off random pieces of his armor as he went. He ended up planting on his bed still equipped with a thigh plate, both gauntlets, gloves, boots, a shoulder plate and, best of all, his helmet. He couldn't sleep, though. He felt like he was being observed.

"Are you awake?" Persephone asked, arousing him from his attempted slumber.

"Yeah," he grumbled, "What is it, PC?"

She made a sound, a low, concerned beep, as if she wasn't sure if she should continue.

"PC, please, I'm tired. What is it?"

She stuttered at first, "What did it say, Josh?"

He sighed. He lifted himself up a little, turning to sit on the edge of his bunk, taking the time to take off one of his gauntlets as he spoke, "It asked me a question, actually. I think it must've been in Greek or something. It asked me what I sought." He proceeded to grab the latches on his helmet, pulling it off his head. He ran his free hand through his matted-down warm brown hair, his bright blue eyes reflecting in the light cast by his Ghost, as he tossed the notorious helm to the floor.

"What did you say?"

"I was a little confused at first. I told it 'peace,' but, uh, it didn't like that answer. It thundered throughout the chamber 'no,' paused, then said 'you want war,' as if it knew what I wanted. Damn thing was a prick, really," he concluded, as he grabbed the massive shoulder piece still strapped to his right arm and pulled at the release, flinging it out of his grasp.

"Why," his Ghost started, pausing, "Is it so important we see Ikora?" she asked, as she fluttered about him.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I want to _know_ what it means, and where I go from here." He looked off away from his Ghost, "Who else would be able to decipher this than Ikora?"

He left the other gauntlet and his boots on because it wasn't worth the effort to take them off. "Now, if that's all," he told his Ghost, as he laid back down, and rolled over to face the bulkhead, "Good night, PC."


	5. Chapter 5: Autopilot

**Hey y'all, I figured I'd give you a heads up about posting. It's irregular. Obviously. I went two weeks without an update and then am now coming back with one literally a day after the last, however these chapters were both short and kinda expositive. Next chapter will be a sight to see, and I can't wait to show you all!**

 **P.S. wow views are _low_! If any of you can, like... tell your friends? Or something? lmao. Please do!**

 **Anyways, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"You do understand the ramifications of what you're suggesting, right?" Ikora told the Titan that stood before her. The trio overlooked the Last City at the Tower Bazaar, Ikora's back facing her City. Ships flew in and out of the Tower, and even scuttled by far above, in high atmosphere. Ikora held a look of concern throughout the discussion. "If the Taken have seized control of Atheon, then there won't be an end to their onslaught." He nodded. She looked away, distant, mumbling something about a Quria, Blade Transform and Savathûn.

"Should we investigate the Vault?" Persephone asked the Warlock Vanguard, floating above the shoulder of her Guardian, snapping Ikora back to attention.

"Absolutely, but you can't do it alone, you'll need -"

"A fireteam," Josh finished, "I know, that was something else I wanted to ask you about."

"Ask me?" Ikora replied, taken aback, "Why?"

"Well," Josh answered, "Zavala's been wanting Eta and I to form a proper fireteam for a while. Now seemed like the perfect time, and we were wondering if... you had any Warlocks to spare our efforts?"

She thought about a moment, thinking hard. "I...," she began, calm and reassuring as ever, "I'll have to see. I believe a new Warlock was just recently revived, but I'm not quite sure if she's ready. Most of the rest of the Warlock Order right now are trying to decipher the mysteries of the Dreaming City, which is currently imposing immense stipulations. But... there's something else you should probably know concerning this, a lead that you may want to follow at some point," she warned.

"In the Ishtar Sink, there are still remnants of the Fallen House of Winter. While we know that the current Fallen plague throughout the system appears to be a coalition of all Houses, they left Exile to rot on the Moon, the House of Winter has already been dismantled, and whatever remains of the Wolves hides out in Old Russia. Exile has likely fled to Venus to side with the few Winter soldiers still remaining. These same Fallen... have asked for our help."

Josh's jaw dropped, and Eta stepped back a little.

"I know, we were shocked, too. This was recent, as well, so if they haven't been wiped out, they might have some answers."

Eta had been silent the entire exchange, but chose now to speak up, with an inquisition, "What was wrong? Did they say?"

Ikora shook her head, but paused before answering, "So many of the Guardians who spoke Eliksni have fallen. Cayde..." her gaze fell, and a tear grazed her face. Ikora was usually calm and collected, one of the most respected Guardians in the solar system, but Cayde's death had affected her, too. Deeply. She closed her eyes, holding back the flood. She sniffled a little, before continuing, "Since most of my Warlocks are either dead or embroiled in Taken conflict, we didn't have anyone fluent in Eliksni on hand, but we gathered what we could from reference texts and the like. From what you said, though, there's a good chance it was the Taken.

"Ever since the Red War, the Taken have seemed so much more coordinated. Attacking water purification sites in the EDZ, trespassing Holy ground on Io, and now, with their infiltration of the Dreaming City... I fear that what's happening on Venus could be more of the same. Stop them, Guardians. I would recommend contacting another fireteam to help you investigate the Vault of Glass, but I would also recommend you seek the Fallen remnants. That transmission we received came from their old ketch, so I would begin my search there."

Josh nodded, and turned to leave the Bazaar, but Ikora stopped him.

"Good hunting, Guardian, and remember... I never gave you clearance to go to Venus. This is, officially, off the record."

"Understood. Thank you, Ikora," Josh said.

"One last thing," Ikora spoke, "The Warlock. Her name is Alisa. Right now," she materialized a data pad and glanced at it, before returning her attention to the Titan, "She's engaging in some Gambit with fireteam Rhino. When she returns to the Tower, I will let her know that she has a new assignment." She turned to Ophiuchus, her Ghost, "Ophiuchus will alert you ahead of time if I can convince Alisa to reinforce you." Ophiuchus nodded to Persephone, and she nodded back, spinning around and back into phase.

"Stay safe," she said as she waved them off, the two men departing with their Ghosts, leaving her alone again to gaze upon her City.

* * *

The two were already back in their ships with trajectories aimed at Venus when Eta asked the question.

"So, what first - the Fallen or the Vault?"

"Fallen," Josh replied, already in orbit, "I want answers, and the City _needs_ them. We can go ahead and try to get a hold of Cobra or Rhino though, see if they're up for some fun."

"Where's transmat?"

"Coast. I don't want to be too close to the Ember Caves, and we have no idea what its like at their hideout since we've been gone for so long," he replied, checking his systems and flipping switches to ready the ship for a jump. He checked to make sure he had enough glimmer loaded to keep his ship steady. He didn't want it falling apart while he was flying it.

As they reached low orbit, they heard it.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The distinctive, and quite annoying, beeping of Zavala's quarantine alarm. Josh knew Zavala was about to start barking at him through his speakers.

"What do you think you're doing?" Zavala boomed over the comms of Josh's jumpship. Josh rolled his eyes, pulling back the throttle.

"Flying to Venus, what does it look like I'm doing?"

Zavala audibly fumed, "I will not tolerate this disregard for quarantine procedure. You have no idea what could be ensuing on Venus!"

Josh scoffed, "Yeah, sure, big guy." Luckily, his ship made it easy to avoid this conversation. There sat before him a big, right red button on his control console, which he promptly slammed his fist into, his ship making the jump towards the Ishtar Sink.

"Don't think you're just going to get away with this unpunished, Titan. Your punishment will-" Zavala scolded him before being cut off by the entering of slipspace.

"Thank the Traveler," Josh let out, along with a sigh of relief. Persephone rose next to him, "You know, you ought not piss off one of the most powerful Titans in the solar system," she advised. He merely shrugged, propping his feet up on the dash as he pulled the lever to cover the console from accidental button presses, putting his hands behind his head, relaxing.

"What's he gonna do, stop me from patrolling for a week? If we get this done, PC," Josh stared down his Ghost, "We'll be heroes."

She sneered, "You already _are_ heroes."

He chuckled, "Okay, well," he eased, "It'll make us even bigger heroes. Besides, if we end up saving the City from some Taken threat, I don't really think Zavala's going to be complaining."

"Wouldn't be out of character, though," she conceded, turning back to the viewport to watch the volleys of bright lights zip past them like a magnificent display of colors.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Persephone commented.

Josh shrugged, "Nothing special. I've seen the same thing for the past 6 years," he said, apathetically, gesturing to the stars blazing past them.

"Yeah, but," she replied, "Doesn't it just wow you every time?"

He gave his Ghost a confused look. "No?" he cautiously responded, "You okay, PC?"

She moaned, and shook her shell. "No, I'm not okay, Josh, you don't talk to me anymore!" she cried, as she distantly stared into the stars.

Josh hadn't expected this turn of events. He took on a sincere tone, "What? PC, you're my Ghost, I literally would not be alive if it weren't for you. I count on you for everything," he assured her. He waited until she looked back at him to continue, "What makes you think I don't talk to you anymore?"

She sighed, "You've seemed so distant for the past couple of months, like you just aren't feeling 100% anymore. Ever since Xol."

She wasn't entirely wrong. "Well, if I'm honest," he said, "Xol was so little of a threat yet blown so far out of proportion that yeah, I got a little exhausted. From what I hear, the Infinite Forest was even worse. Everything since the Red War has seemed kind of fruitless. Like, if Panoptes was such a big threat, why didn't it take more than a single Hunter to take it down? If Nokris was literally Oryx's son, just like Crota, why did he only take a 3-man fireteam maybe an hour to whittle him down to nothing? If Xol was so powerful, why were we so capable of melting him with the help of Rasputin? If I'm being _really_ honest, I don't even think the Barons were that tough to handle. Even the Rifleman. As much as I miss Cayde, I have to acknowledge that we lost him due to his own foolishness.

"Nothing we've done since the Red War, up until the War for the Dreaming City I guess, has really felt like it meant anything. Ghaul, Panoptes, Nokris, Xol, the Barons, the Fanatic, they were all _pushovers_ ," he spat. He held his head in his hands in frustration, and sat silent for a few moments.

"I've been so bored, PC," Josh spoke. He was still, staring into the Void ahead. He, eventually, sighed, and beckoned her, folding his fingers back and forth. She floated to his chest, staring up at him. He clutched her in both hands, and she nestled herself against his metal plate inside the warmth his cupped hands generated.

After a while, he sighed and apologized, "I'm sorry, Persephone. I didn't know you felt that way." They remained together in peace until a beeping became persistent from the control console. Josh kept one hand holding his Ghost, and with the other reached out to enable the comms.

"Yeah?" Josh answered.

"Touch down in less than a minute, You ready, Josh?" Eta asked from his ship.

"Yep, we're ready," he spoke back. Josh let go of his Ghost, as she looked up at him.

"What happened?" she asked.

He was a little perplexed at first. "Uh…" he told her, "We're about to land?"

"Oh," she replied, dazed, "I must've been drifting into phase." She floated up next to her Guardian. He lifted his feet from the console and spun off the chair, grabbing his machine gun that was propped against the wall next to him, pulling back the charging handle and waltzing to the hatch. He yanked his gun up to face forwards, prepared for anything.


	6. Chapter 6: Russia

_MANY MONTHS AGO..._

She awoke with a fright, suddenly jolted back into being after... how long had she been gone? Who was she? Where was she? She had so many questions that she needed answered, but before she could, something bright white and pointed rose in front of her.

"Это сработало! Ты жив!" the small white orb spoke. It's case surrounded a vibrant magenta light, this core rotating and shifting, inspecting, awaiting a response.

"Uhh... what?" the Guardian spoke, for the first time of her life, feeling the air entering and exiting her lungs. It felt new, and old.

"Oh!" the machine replied, floating back a little, "Вы меня понимаете?"

The Guardian looked around, not sure how to respond, taking in her surroundings. It was cold and snowy, and in front of her stood a massive wall of metal and man, painted bright orange. All around her sat empty, rusted cars, covered in snow, moss, and spiderwebs. There were skeletons in many of them, slouched over or dangling against the sides. They'd been there for quite some time.

"You understand me?" it asked, snapping her back to focus.

"Uhh... yeah, I do now. I don't know what you were saying before, though," the girl replied.

"Ah!" the little machine fluttered, its voice discernibly feminine, now that she thought about it, although shrouded in mechanical overlay and a thick accent, "You no speak Russian?"

"No, I don't think so, at least."

"Ah!" the machine exclaimed again, "I will explain in English then, да?"

"Uhh... yes, please?" she replied.

"You are Guardian, I am Ghost. Your Ghost. This Fallen territory, we must move quickly if we are to stay alive," the little thing said as it turned to face the wall, "You see that door, up ahead? We need to go -"

She was cut off by alien screeching in the distance. She turned to its direction, the Guardian soon following, seeing a couple of strange creatures. One was probably as tall as her, with two arms each possessing three stubby fingers, and a dark red crown atop its oddly shaped head. In one hand it held a knife, but it was buzzing with electricity. In the other, it had some kind of small arms weapon, a pistol or something. The other alien was taller, and horned. It's helmet was white. It had four arms, but two of them were empty. The other two, however, held some kind of long rifle, bristling with energy, with a large, irregularly shaped scope attached to it. A third one approached behind the other two, and howled, giving away that it'd been the one to screech the first time.

She didn't have enough time to get a look at it because her Ghost materialized in front of her, "Превет, we need move!" she leaned her shell to the side, pointing at the wall.

The Guardian got the message, and began running. She didn't know who she was, but apparently she'd been in pretty good shape. She didn't even break a sweat.

She figured she'd ask a question, "What happened to me?" but she realized that she didn't know where her Ghost had gone.

"Do not know. You do not keep your memories from past life," she heard her Ghost's voice in her head, which startled her.

"Where..." she began to ask, but her Ghost anticipated her answer.

"Do not be alarm, I still with you. When I don't need to be visible, I choose not to. I go into phase - where you can still hear me, and I can still help you, but enemy cannot shoot me," her Ghost explained.

"Okay, well, what do you mean 'past life?' I died?"

"Да. You have been dead long time. Likely many centuries. You may see things you not understand, but I help you," her Ghost replied.

As she made it to the steps of the doorway inside, she took a glance back to find that the aliens had vanished. She grew wary and worried. She didn't want to die again, especially not when she'd only been alive for a few minutes. She ran up the stairs, only to be met with another staircase. She climbed it, and then another, until she was on a walkway, under some other room. It was dark, and the only light in the room came through the large windows to her right, through which flooded orange, sunset light.

"Who was I?" she asked in this brief moment of intermission, stopping in the corridor. Her Ghost materialized in front of her, and looked her over, emitting a blue, energous cone on her. Her Ghost scanned her like this for a good few seconds, and then shot back up to make eye contact.

"Russian Army, Senior Sergeant Alisa Matroyshka, 9034th Infantry. Your identification shows your birthdate, as well... 29 July... I cannot tell what year. Everything else is faded or damaged."

She floated down a little, and looked at Alisa's hip. "You have pistol still, I would suggest use it," she advised.

Alisa looked down and, sure enough, there was a pistol holstered on her right thigh. She clutched the grip, and pulled it up. Somehow, she knew what it was. KBP Гш-40 (GSh-40), a 200-year newer version of the Гш-18 (GSh-18). She assumed she knew this through her service. She couldn't remember anything about her service, or her previous life. But she knew what her gun was called. Fantastic, she thought. This brought up the question, though - if she was in the Russian military, why didn't she understand it when her Ghost spoke it? This question, and many more, would have to wait - she looked out the large, stained window and saw some of the aliens - Fallen, she remembered - approaching the wall, preparing to pursue her.

"We must get moving," her Ghost commanded her, and she couldn't say she disagreed. Another staircase ahead, which she climbed, and it opened into a chamber of indeterminate size. The light wasn't really getting through to here, and it was incredibly dark. She thought she'd use it to her advantage, before a spotlight sprung out of nowhere as her Ghost reappeared by her shoudler, her purple eye projecting a moderate beam of light. She could hear scuttling in the chamber but she didn't know where from. It sounded like it surrounded her.

"I try to find light switch, give me moment. Stay on your guard," her Ghost warned. She brought her weapon to bear, aiming into the darkness, ready to fire at anything she saw move. It took a few moments, her Ghost mumbling something she couldn't understand, but luminous white light flooded the chamber. It was massive, and it was crawling with Fallen. Floating turret platforms scuttled out of view, and there were many of the two and four armed Fallen crawling around, all of which slipped out of view to avoid detection. To her right, a metal gate noisily slid open, water dripping from the ice that had occupied its roof, and her Ghost prompted her to enter.

"Look! Weapon! Bigger gun, take, take!" prompted the Ghost. The weapon she was referring to was a bullpup rifle, amidst a stack of boxes, with a couple magazines strewn on the floor. She grabbed it, and instantly knew its origin. It was a relic, an Izhmash Аш-12.7 (ASh-12.7) assault rifle, dating back to the early 21st century. She holstered her pistol, and slung her new rifle to bear. She rounded a bend in the corridor, and saw a Fallen's shadow bounce of the wall as it skittered away. She wasn't entirely keen to pursue it, thinking they'd probably laid a trap already, but she was prompted to by the sound of shuffling behind her, reminding her of the other Fallen from outside. She'd rather not be cornered.

She paced forward, cautiously, scanning every nook and cranny for Fallen, until she rounded another bend and finally came face to face with them.

"Dregs!" her Ghost cried, as two of the two armed kind appeared ahead, one leaning out from an alcove and the other falling through the ceiling. The closer of the two had two daggers, and it rushed her. She panicked, squeezing the trigger until the alien in front of her fell backwards from her volley, dead. The other Dreg, seeing his comrade fallen, raised a pistol in his hand and took aim at Alisa. She rested the gun on her shoulder, as time seemed to slow down. She clicked the trigger again, this time firing a short burst into the Fallen's head, upon which it exploded, white matter escaping upwards from its corpse.

"That was its soul!" her Ghost told her, as she ejected her now empty magazine and loaded in a fresh one. She'd only grabbed those two magazines, though, and she didn't feel like running out of ammo anytime soon. For the first time, she looked down at her chest, and realized she was wearing a plate carrier, and that she had a couple of grenades, some rations, and 4 magazines for, she hoped, her pistol. She slung her Аш-12.7 over her back, as she grabbed her pistol and readied it for combat. She'd rather have a weaker weapon that she could actually use. She held it by her side, proceeding slowly into another opening.

A screech spooked her, as another Dreg ambushed her from above, pinning her to the ground, holding both a pistol and a dagger. It pressed her head against the metal grate, and she lost the grip of her pistol. It howled in rage as it fired off a round into her chest. She could feel the air escaping her lungs, but she refused to die again so soon. She became filled with power, not even knowing how, bristling with Arc energy. She leapt up, the Dreg exploding around her. She sprinted forward, to find a room full of more Fallen, and one of them was much larger than the rest. It looked like the one she barely saw outside. She focused her energy into a wave of Arc light, launching a volley of plasma at the Fallen, emptying the room in seconds. As she finished, she realized she was flying above the room. She stopped seething with Arc and then -

* * *

"Alisa! Alisa! Get up, come on!" she suddenly heard her Ghost cry out. Her eyes opened and she swore, taking in a massive breath of air, expecting it to hurt after, but... it didn't. She picked herself up off the floor, and felt around her. There was no bullet hole. She could breath! Her Ghost sunk down and stared her in the eyes.

"I have no idea how you did that, but we still need to hurry! I will explain later. I scan ship ahead, and I need to take you to Tower, so we're getting to that ship!" she said as she, once again, disappeared.

This was all so new to Alisa. She could come back to life _again_? This was amazing to her. But her Ghost was right, she could her the Fallen behind her, and she needed to move. Across a bridge she ran, until up ahead she saw something, and her Ghost saw it, too.

"A chest!" she exclaimed in joy, "Open it, maybe you will find some equipment another Guardian left behind." So she did. Alisa unlatched the locks to the chest, and struggled to lift it open. It was heavy. Her Ghost showed up again, and flew under the roof of the Chest, keeping it steady. Alisa rummaged through the container. No weapons, but there were a few hundred rounds of 12.7mm ammo, which would perfectly fill her Аш-12.7, but she could only fit so many magazines in her carrier.

"Does this 'Tower' have food?" she openly asked while continuing to rummage.

"Да."

She immediately threw out her rations, and stuffed a couple extra mags into the pouches they'd occupied. There was some other assorted junk in there, like an extra stock for the Аш, a pair of binoculars, which she slung around her neck, an empty canteen, and a helmet that looked incredibly futuristic compared to her camouflage military outfit.

"I believe you are Warlock, and that is Warlock helmet. Take it," her Ghost told her. She did as she was told, and reached down to grab the helmet, and snugly placed it on her head. It fit perfectly, which she found odd, but before she could ponder further, a bright blue beam shot past her, barely missing her head. She looked back, and saw that her slowness had allowed the other Fallen to catch up with her. 3 Dregs ran at her from across the bridge, and a Vandal, her helmet told her, was sniping her with one of those long rifles she'd seen earlier.

She hadn't noticed it when she't equipped the helmet, but it'd immediately activated, revealing a white HUD overlay for her to look out. Now that she looked, the Dregs also showed their names above their heads. She could see another large Fallen in the back, the one she'd not been able to view, and her helmet told her it was a Captain.

She realized she was getting distracted, and she brought her pistol to bear, and squeezed off a couple of rounds at the closest Dreg, watching him flinch but keep coming. She fired off a bunch of more rounds, bringing her other arm forward to steady her weapon, but they kept coming.

"Ghost, what do I do? They keep coming!" she cried to her companion.

"Aim for the head!" she told her.

Alisa clicked, but her gun was empty. She released the magazine, and tossed it at the Dregs, hitting one of them right in the eye. She backpedaled down some stairs as she forced another magazine into her Гш-40. She readjusted her aim, firing a burst of three rounds into one of the Dregs' foreheads, watching it explode as its body crumpled to the ground. The other advancing Dreg pulled out a dagger, preparing to stab her, as she lit it up with her sidearm. The creature fell back, warded off successfully, and she was out of range of the sniper.

She entered another room, more of a hall, with a whole in the wall ahead. There were more Fallen. She cut through them and proceeded past a giant fan, going outside. She was back in the snow, and it was freezing. What she assumed were Fallen ships flew overhead, her gut telling her to start running, as they started laying down suppressing fire with their chin cannons. The wind blew all around her, and snow continued to fall, keeping the visibility low. Eventually she made it past them and entered a compound where... there was nothing.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a ship here?" she complained.

"Да, but it appears to be missing." Her Ghost flew out of phase and scanned the room. Her HUD identified it as "Dock 13, Cosmodrome, Old Russia." Her Ghost stared upwards, and then back at Alisa.

"Alisa, try to get up there. I should be able to signal the Vanguard from there."

"Who are the Vanguard?" Alisa asked as she thought about how she could possibly make it up there, "And how the heck do I get up there?"

"Jump," she instructed, "And the Vanguard, they are the leaders of the Guardians. Each Vanguard leads different sect. Warlock Order, Titan Legion and Hunter Corps."

She wasn't sure what she meant at first, but she intrinsically knew in her mind what to do. She squatted down, before propelling herself upwards. Jumping. Except this was no ordinary jump - she glided upwards, slowly, until she reached the top. She reached out her hand to feel the snowfall, and her Ghost materialized in it. She spun around snappily, 90 degrees each time, for 3 cycles before returning to face her Guardian.

"We must wait out the snow storm before I can make transmission."

"Snow storm?" Alisa asked, bewildered, "I don't see any snow storm."

Her Ghost turned around to face the freezing lakes below them off the Divide, then spoke, "There, up ahead. Since Devils break into Cosmodrome, they brought onslaught of snow. Break will come soon. Recommend you seek shelter."

Back into the compound, she figured. She hopped back down, although preferring to go back into a room she'd passed up, with control consoles and the like. She slumped against one of the consoles, and summoned her Ghost again.

"So," she began, "What do I call you?"

Her Ghost made a motion that almost seemed like a shrug. "Whatever you desire," she replied.

Alisa thought about it for a moment. Her Ghost didn't really have any defining features to call her by, except...

"Violet," Alisa smiled, "I'll call you Violet, for the magenta light in your... eye." She laughed warmly.

"Виолета... I like. I can get used to that."

A warm smile crossed Alisa's face as she spoke, "It's nice to meet you, Violet!"

Violet looked at her strangely at first, and then replied, "Uhh... is nice to meet you, too, Alisa," to which Alisa laughed as if they were friends who'd known each other for decades. She suddenly regretted throwing out her rations.

* * *

 **Bet you weren't expecting two chapters in one day, were ya? Yeah, I'm bored, and I love to write, so... here it is! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it! It may be a little disjointed, having focused on the revival of a second Guardian in the same place as _the_ Guardian, after Rise of Iron, rather than Josh and Eta, but I think it was very helpful in setting up Alisa's character, showing off her overall personality and perseverance. I promise, Chapter 7 won't go up today, I don't plan on any more double uploads, but hey, you never know!**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed, and spread the word about this fan-fic, _please_. As a writer, I do actually want people to read it!**


	7. Chapter 7: Gambit

_NOW…_

Shots rang out, echoing across the battlefield. A Warlock stood up from the ashes of a Cabal missile pod, clutching her side.

"Can you fix that?" she asked openly, letting her Ghost materialize upon her open palm.

"Да. You have 36,780 Glimmer remaining for further repairs," chirped the Ghost in reply, although the Warlock was already moving by the time her Ghost had made confirmation. Her Ghost's response, though, was cut short as a flaming hammer went zooming past her, barely missing her face. She turned in the direction it came from to see a Titan soaring through the sky, blazing with Solar energy, as he threw another hammer at the oncoming Cabal. A group of 3 Legionaries charged the Titan as he landed on a Fallen platform, leaping above them and nonchalantly dropping another hammer right in the middle of them, watching as they all flew apart in different directions into the acid below, one even partially disintegrating from the might of the Solar damage. He landed where they once stood, and stopped burning, his armor returning to its normal cool blue and white.

"You could've hit me with that Hammer, Pilot!" the Warlock complained.

The Titan, Pilot-8, merely chuckled and sprinted at the rest of the Cabal. Overhead, she heard a familiar voice, "You've got enough motes – bank, and summon that Primeval!" The Drifter, the host of Gambit. He was an older man, probably in his 40s or 50s, and he held a collection of Taken that he allowed Guardians to engage and feed. No one knew what, but he was up to something with those Taken.

Alisa didn't care, though. Gambit was fast-paced and fun, just how she liked it. Right now, she was fighting captured Red Legion troops in the Tangled Shore, a moat of acid below them. She carried 13 motes, enough to get their Primeval, but she wanted to give the enemy something to worry about. Just then, though, she saw another of her teammates come sprinting at the mote bank on the center platform.

"Vector, no, stop!" she cried, waving her hands furiously. Just as he'd reached the bank, he turned at his teammate, obviously confused. She pointed above her head at where she assumed her mote icon would be on his HUD.

"I have 13! Let me get two more and we can hit them with an Ogre!"

He nodded silently, the Hunter tossing 2 motes her way. She nodded back. Gathering her now 15 motes, she slammed them into the bank, as it rapidly sunk into the floor.

"That's it, you've summoned a Primeval!" the Drifter announced from above, "And you've sent a Taken Ogre to the other side: nice work!" Alisa motioned for her team to gather at their spawn, and they huddled up.

"Alright," she began, "What's everyone got?"

"Couple rounds of Sleeper ready," spoke the Exo Hunter, Vector-3.

She nodded and replied, "That's good, good, but don't use it on the boss, watch our backs for invaders." She turned to the two Titans. "What about you two, what've you got?"

Pilot was the first to speak, "Nothing, I'm empty on everything except my pulse rifle." Everyone turned to the other Titan, awaiting a response.

"I've got 3 rockets ready," Ryan, the other human of the group, finally spoke, "What about you, Alisa, what've you got?"

She glanced to the corner of her HUD at her ammo counters, also having a few rounds in Sleeper Simulant, as well as plenty of pulse and fusion rifle ammo. Her super was also ready, which she communicated to her team. They thought for a moment.

"Okay, Ryan and I will go for the Envoys. Pilot, keep the boss distracted," she said, as she readied her pulse rifle. Everyone nodded in unison in answer.

The Primeval made itself known with its Arc blasts. It was a Taken Ogre, a quite large one at that, with Thrall and Phalanxes surrounding it. They were flanked by two Wizards - the Envoys. Taking down the Envoys would allow the Ogre to go down more quickly, so Alisa readied her Sleeper and rested her cheek on its skeletal stock. Her breathing slowed, as time around her seemed to slow as well. The Wizard moved around, firing at her teammates, but she followed it steadily. She squeezed the trigger as a bright red beam of light shot out of the frame, crackling and shaking with unstable energy. The beam shot straight through the Wizard, dissipating against its shield and being dealt massive critical damage in the process. The Wizard flailed around, obviously trying to stay alive, but Alisa remained in her zone, and fired again, allowing her weapon to overheat itself as the Wizard literally disintegrated before her eyes.

"Woohoo, sent that Envoy screaming back into the Ascendant Realm!" Drifter commented, "Awesome! You better hurry up, though; opposing team just got their Primeval up."

She wasn't about to lose this match to a bunch of Hunters, she thought. She glanced at the top of her HUD, and he was right. Her team had barely scratched their Primeval, and the opposing team's was already up, too. Their teams were currently tied, so whoever won this round had the match.

"Invasion portal's up, but so is the opposing team's!"

She thought a moment, switching to her pulse rifle and firing a couple bursts at the Envoy.

"Ryan, Pilot, get the Envoy done. Hit the Primeval with everything you've got when that's done," she commanded over her fireteam channel, "Vector, keep on the watch for enemy invaders. I'm going through."

She saw the Taken-Vex-ish gate spring to life right next to the Primeval, and she glided forward through, momentarily enveloped in raw, pure, Taken energy.

"This is what the Taken feel," the Drifter'd once told her.

Her HUD now had a red tint to it, and she could see the opposing team… through walls. She'd never actually been through before, Vector usually going instead. As it seemed, they were all preoccupied with their Primeval, except one, who was sprinting at the portal to attack her team! She readied her weapon, only then realizing she'd stowed her Sleeper. It'd have to do, though. She had to protect her team, and try to prevent her opponents from –

"Transmission from Ikora Rey," her Ghost, Violet, sometimes Violetta, interrupted.

"I'm kind of busy right now," she replied, "But patch her through, I guess."

She squeezed and shot off a burst at the Hunter that leapt towards the portal. As the bullets pierced his shields, he fell to the ground, taking cover and recharging his shields.

"Get me my Sleeper back, Violet!" she shouted.

Her linear fusion rifle materialized in her hands, and she stared at the cover the Hunter hid at, until he popped his head up. A mistake. Her rifle came to life, discharging another volley of unstable Solar energy directly into his skull. She winced a little. As he collapsed to the ground, his Ghost above him waiting for assistance, she felt a little bad. That'd probably hurt in the morning. She hadn't reloaded earlier, so she stowed away behind a metal wall, still hearing the Taken and Guardian conflict outside. Violet created a new magazine in her hand, and she slotted it into her weapon, locking it into place.

"So, where's this transmission from I—"

Alisa felt her whole body torn apart at the seams. She caught a glimpse of a bright, red beam intersect her at every interval. Every molecule in her being was on fire. And then it wasn't.

* * *

She fell to the ground, back on her team's turf. She raised her gaze, and Vector stood above her, reaching his hand out. She took it, silently thanking him. He turned back to the Primeval. She looked at her HUD, realizing she'd at least set them back a little, but her team had made no progress since she'd –

"How did I die?" she asked Vector. Months ago, that would've been a traumatizing question, but she'd made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. But she hadn't yet impressed the Vanguard.

He shrugged, "Kill feed said it was a Sleeper."

She moaned, "By the Traveler, I'm so tired of Sleeper! I wish the Drifter would just BAN it already!"

Vector glanced down at the gun in her hands, then back at her. He cocked his head to the side, like a confused puppy, "Then… why do you use it?"

She scoffed, started walking past him, "So I can win." She saw she still had a full magazine, but it'd be her last.

"Did you guys get the Envoy?"

"Yeah, but we need to start hitting that Primeval."

She thought a little bit before replying, "I was going to use my Super on the other team, but since I was stopped…" she trailed off, a smile crossing her face.

"It has been a while since you used it, are you sure you're ready?" her Ghost concernedly asked. She only nodded in reply. "Okay, I give you everything I have then."

Alisa felt emblazoned, her body covered in electricity, as she reached forwards, and let loose a massive beam of Arc light, straight at the Primeval. The Ogre staggered, and her team started throwing small arms fire at it, Vector firing off his last two Sleeper rounds at its head. She kept her focus directed at the Ogre, more and more concentrated lightning leaping from her fingertips. Her HUD told her that their Primeval was going down, and the opposing team still hadn't touched theirs. That was odd, she thought.

After a few seconds longer, she couldn't keep it going anymore. She slowly settled to the ground, her sense coming back rapidly.

"Invader on the field – hunt 'em!" she unexpectedly heard the Drifter announce. She swore. Could it be the same one who'd hit her with such accuracy?

"Primeval at half, keep on it!" reminded the Drifter. Her team would need to split focus. Vector'd already used his Sleeper, but she still had a magazine left. She directed her team to focus fire on the Primeval, but to stay mobile, so as to not be easy pickings for the invader.

"Hey, Alisa!" called Pilot, her focus shifting towards him, "I've got Sentinel ready. You want me to -"

Before he could finish, a Sleeper round tore through his chest. He collapsed while still disintegrating. Her face was struck with fear and panic. Their Primeval was beginning to heal. She readied her Sleeper, but she had no idea where the invader was.

Vector was still peppering the boss with his scout rifle when he turned around to be smacked in the face with the butt of a Sleeper Simulant. Alisa turned to see too late. The Hunter immediately brought her Sleeper up to his chin and squeezed the trigger, his head erupting in bright orange light.

As all hope seemed lost, Ryan soared overhead, launching a 5-round burst into the invading Hunter. She staggered, and he kept pulling the trigger as fast as he could until she went down. He looked to Alisa.

"Pilot and Vector will be back up in a few seconds, hit that Ogre with your Sleeper!" he screamed.

"Watch it, you've got another invader on the field!" warned the Drifter.

Alisa was now furious - their Primeval was healing, and fast, and now they had _another_ invader on the field mere seconds after defeating the last one. She had to focus though.

"I found him!" Ryan called out. She could see him backpedaling on her flank, firing burst after burst of his Vigilance Wing, to no avail. He swung back, and forced a Towering Barricade in front of him, right as a Sleeper round came soaring at him. Then she heard it. The distinctive clang of a Sunbreaker, and immediately after she watched his cover collapse and Ryan evaporate into Solar mist. The enemy Titan came charging around the corner, enveloped in orange light. He pulled back his arm, preparing to launch another hammer at Alisa. The match was almost lost.

Or was it? A bright purple, circular shield came soaring over her head directly into the enemy's chest, sending him back to the other side. Pilot landed in front of her, before lifting back up in anticipation.

"Portal's up. Go look 'em in the eyes!" Drifter called out.

Pilot shot through that portal, and she shifted her focus back to the Ogre, grateful for his support. She sat her eyes upon the Ogre, still reigning terror on the battlefield.

 _Squeeze. Blast._

 _Squeeze. Blast._

 _Squeeze. Blast._

The Ogre staggered, and she switched to her sniper rifle that had barely seen any use, starting to pump round after round into the boss. At some point, she wasn't sure when, she noticed Ryan beside her loading a rocket into his launcher, proceeding to fire into the Ogre. Even Vector came back up, hitting the Primeval with his fusion rifle until it was empty.

Pilot reappeared in front of the trio with an announcement from the Drifter, "Whoa! Your teammate got an Army of One! Sending him home." Alisa looked around her HUD, and sure enough, he'd wiped them all with his Sentinel, and their Primeval was back at full. And the Ogre in front of them fell.

"That's a win for Rhino, good game people," Drifter announced, "Better luck next time, Scorpion."

"Scorpion?" Alisa asked her team, " _We_ beat _Scorpion_?"

"Impressive," Ikora Rey spoke from the Tower. Alisa screamed in panic, "How long have you been there?"

"Since you patched me in, Alisa," Ikora chuckled, "That was an interesting match to observe, but… I need you back at the Tower, as soon as you can."

"Oh, uh… okay," she replied.

"What was that about?" Pilot asked. They were all gathered on Drifter's Derelict – his ship. He didn't mind. Scorpion had already left, bitter about their defeat. They were one of the only 4-man fireteams out there, primarily because they were Crucible and Gambit champions.

She sighed, "I gotta go, Ikora wants me back at the Tower."

"Oh," he mumbled, "That's a shame. When will you be back?"

"She didn't say. I'll see you later, I guess, guys." They all somberly waved goodbye. Except Pilot.

She turned away, bringing out Violet in preparation to transmat when –

"Stay safe," Pilot whispered in her ear as he hugged her from behind. Her cheeks brightened, as she turned to look up at him. He'd taken off his helmet, revealing his plastic white paint job, and his deep, glowing blue eyes. Her face lit up with a warm smile. She nodded, and whispered back, "I will. I promise," as she dematerialized in his arms, relocating to her ship.

* * *

"So, what's up, Master?" she spoke, as she wandered into the Tower Bazaar. Ikora was in her usual spot overlooking the City. She turned sharply, putting a finger to her lips, beckoning her closer with her other hand.

"I have a mission for you," Ikora whispered.

Alisa was perplexed, raising an eyebrow before replying in a hushed tone, "Why are we whispering?"

Ikora sighed, "Because what I'm asking you to do is… off the record. Do you understand that?"

She nodded.

Ikora continued, "A couple hours ago, a pair of Guardians came to me with a request for assistance on Venus."

"Isn't Venus quarantined?"

"Yes, it is. One of them, a Titan, believes there may be a massive Taken infestation, one that could have incredibly dangerous consequences. They believe that Atheon has been Taken."

Pause.

"Okay?" Alisa asked, confused, "Who's Atheon?"

Ikora was taken aback, but she had to remember that Alisa was revived long after Atheon, Crota, Skolas, Oryx, even SIVA. Even despite being a Warlock, Alisa hadn't had much time to study recent or even ancient history. She'd been too embroiled in the Red War and the much later hunt for the Barons.

"Atheon," she began, "Was one of the Vex's most treasured assets. Quite literally a _god_ to them. It was Time's Conflux. Somewhat like the Hive, it had its own space similar to an Ascendant Realm. It was outside of space and time. The Vault of Glass. Atheon had the capacity to shift and bend time to its will. If the Taken have seized control of Atheon, then it puts the City at risk. It puts _humanity_ at risk."

There was a brief silence.

"So… why me?" Alisa spoke up.

She shrugged, "They asked for a Warlock to help them think through this. They also spoke of forming a fireteam, since it's just the two of them, an Exo Hunter and a human Titan."

"So, when –"

"Now. They're already on their way there, they might have already arrived. I don't know where they're going first, so you might have to actively work to link up with them. If you have something else to attend to, however, I will let them know."

She pondered this offer for a moment. "So, it's classified, basically?"

"Right," Ikora answered.

"And Zavala is going to freak if he finds out?"

"He already found out that the other two went, he just has no idea why. They're veterans, though, so he may be a little more lenient with them. You may have to jump somewhere else and head to Venus from there so as to not trigger his alarms." Ikora handed her a slip of paper, "These are their general coordinates. Ishtar Sink, Ishtar Region. If you see a giant volcano spewing blue lava, you're in the right place. Good luck."

Alisa nodded.

"Just remember," Ikora called out from behind her, "There's a lot of darkness surrounding the area. If you go down, your Ghost may not be able to pick you up, but Josh and Eta are veterans, they should be able to keep you alive."

"Josh?"


	8. Chapter 8: Collision Course

**Hey y'all, I've been working on this one all week - it's a longer one than they have been. Hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

"There are a lot more Taken than I remembered here," Eta commented as the two hopped out of their jumpships, "In fact, I don't remember _any_ Taken here." Eta gestured to the Shattered Coast ahead of them. One of the old Ishtar buildings that used to would have obstructed the view was missing. No blast marks or anything, it had just vanished. Taken Blights were everywhere, as was Taken goo and Taken troops. Thralls, Goblins, and Psions patrolling in large numbers. Josh could see a few Vandals up on vantage points, and different crowds being led by Captains and Centurions.

"I am so glad we don't have to get through here to get to the Ember Caves," Josh spoke, visible relief in his voice, "We'd need Cobra _and_ Rhino just to clear this out. "

He summoned his Ghost, and spoke further, "Any word on, uh…. Whatever his name was?"

His Ghost scoffed and replied, "It was a _girl_ , and her _name_ is Alisa, but no. Nothing yet. I'll be sure to let you know if and when I do."

"Should we wait here for her?" Eta suggested.

"No," Josh shut down, "Because we don't know if she's actually coming."

"We should at least leave 'er a beacon or somethin'. She's probably gonna land here."

Eta had a point. "Alright, I don't have one though. That's a Hunter's job," Josh conceded and joked.

Eta reached around and unslung his bag, dumping it in the ground. He knelt down and dug through his pack until he felt a long metal shaft. He pulled it out to reveal what looked a lot like a patrol beacon. Long silver shaft with a larger end wrapped in circuitry and a flashing blue light, rather than patrol yellow, like an unnecessarily futuristic flare. Like a flare, Eta tossed it down next to a pool of acid right about where they'd landed and pulled out his Ghost.

"Anchor, Sparrow please." Anchor vanished again, and Eta's Sparrow materialized under him. It was sleek, black, and futuristic. He'd gotten it helping Ana Bray out on Mars. It was quite large, twin blades to the front and a seated engine in the rear. It emitted a SIVA-like glow as he thrust away, jumping a slope and rounding the bend.

Persephone floated up, and Josh nodded. Of course, she knew what to do. She disappeared again, and suddenly Josh was on his Sparrow, too. His wasn't as flashy. A relic from before the SIVA outbreak, he'd won it in an SRL tournament. He used to love Sparrow Racing League, but Holliday'd been too busy to host it in recent years. Its engine purred as he throttled it, the two stabilizing beams at the front glowing with Arc energy. This thing was unstable, but it was fast, a lot faster than Eta's Warmind Sparrow. He'd been incredibly thankful to be off-world when Ghaul had attacked, since he hadn't left anything important in the old vaults.

Eventually, they made it to the Caves, and experienced more of the same. Taken goo and Blights, although less Taken, and they weren't alone. There were a couple of Fallen snipers at the entrance to their lair, trying their damnedest to thin the herd. Here, a large Taken Centurion led a battle group of Psions, Acolytes. Knights, and Goblins. Josh's HUD told him the Centurion had once been a Valus, now stripped of that title and left a mere pawn of some big bad Taken. And the Fallen, his HUD showed, were blue. Which meant friendly.

"These must be the Winter," Eta remarked, hopping off of his Sparrow, "Let's hope there's more than just two Vandals in their army."

Josh figured his machine gun probably wouldn't be too useful here.

"PC, can you get me my Sleepless?"

His Dreaming City rocket launcher appeared in his hands, his HUD informing him of the two rockets he had available. He sighed, "Let's hope they drop some heavy bricks."

He unfolded the tube and loaded a rocket his Ghost materialized for him into the chamber before resealing the tube. He brought the rocket to bear, glad that the Taken hadn't noticed them yet. Eta was already scaling some rockface, and Josh set his sights on the Valus. Two Knights sat directly at its flank, launching boomers at the Fallen. Josh waited for a signal. The Taken and Fallen kept firing at each other. And then…

"Fire!" Eta called over comms as he let loose a sniper round directly into the Valus' back. The Valus turned around, and Josh squeezed the trigger, watching the rocket fly out of the tube and explode into its face. The Knights next to it staggered, but the Valus stood its ground. It pointed to Josh, and Psions began to march across the field toward him.

They clumped together, which worked in his favor. He slid another rocket into the tube and leapt into air, hoping to get a nice aerial shot at the Psions. The Valus roared across the field, and the Psions began to spread out. Josh groaned. They were being a lot more organized. Less predictable. He fired anyway, and the rocket tore through a Psion's skull as it exploded behind it, taking out a couple more. Unfortunately, being Taken Psions, the remaining Psions split to not only replace their dead but also reinforce them.

Eta, on the other hand, was having more success. Due to the inherent properties of Whisper of the Worm, he kept lighting up the Valus until it moved behind a large rock outcropping. Goblins started to shield the Valus, and Acolytes took up sniper positions, spawning Acolyte Eyes to beam the enemy.

The Psions kept replicating. Josh switched to his auto rifle, trying his hardest to mow them down, but there was no stopping them. Josh thought it'd be smart to try to fall back to Winter's position.

"Eta, throw me a smoke!"

Suddenly, Josh was enveloped in darkness. But he could see through it all, albeit poorly. He sprinted towards the Fallen, remaining unseen to the Taken. But they were smarter than that. A Blight spawned far ahead of him, releasing 3 Phalanxes, all digging their shields into the sand to halt his progress.

 _Clap._

The middle Phalanx fell.

 _Clap._

The second Phalanx fell, Josh sprinting by the last.

 _Clap._

An Acolyte sniper pair fell.

Eta kept up his perfect aim, hitting target after target and keeping the cycle of ammunition flowing. Josh, still hidden for a very short amount of time, climbed up the ledge above most of the Taken, seeing what the Fallen had tried to do to defend themselves. The assault he'd seen was only from a distant perspective. There were plenty more Fallen out here, having tried their hardest to barricade themselves. Boxes, crates, antennae, bodies, Vex, anything they could get their hands on they used to hold the line. They had numerous sniper Shanks up high, and repeater Shanks in the front. A Servitor in the back gave them all Ether strength, and there were even some Dregs trying to hold the line. And hold the line they must, as there was another horde of Psions advancing up the watch, reinforced by a couple more siege Knights giving boomer cover.

Foolish. They couldn't simply stop the Taken by blocking them. They had to know that. The Fallen up here had no access to reinforcements from inside, because there were undoubtedly more Taken and Fallen fighting inside.

Josh's cloak decided to fall at just that time, and he was glad he was on the Fallen side of the barrier, because the Psions immediately snapped to fire at him. He covered his head, and a Dreg tackled him, pulling a shock pistol to his forehead. It screamed and spat in his face, its saliva dripping down his helmet. Outside of his view, he heard a Fallen roar, and knew it'd come from a Captain, which he hadn't seen yet. The Dreg turned his head to face the Captain, and hesitated before the Captain grunted again, finally letting go. Josh helped himself back up.

Josh watched as a Fallen dropship flew overhead, peppering the legions of Taken with Arc cannons. Still mobile, the skiff released a Servitor and multiple repeater and explosive Shanks. The exploders flanked the Taken, bombing them. The Valus hadn't showed itself in a while.

"PC!" he barked, as he summoned his Ghost, "Get a hold of reinforcements. Cobra, Rhino, hell, even Scorpion, I don't care." She nodded and zipped away, seeking a better signal. He was Ghost-less until she was done.

The skiff kept making rounds, its pilot desperate to stop the Taken. Things were looking up. Psions were going down faster than could be replaced. All of the Knights except one were down, and Josh couldn't see any Acolytes. The battle raged on, though. The Psion horde still clawed at the Fallen line.

Persephone floated back down to talk to Josh, "Rhino won't do it, they're too good for it. I couldn't reach Scorpion, but Cobra's mobilizing as we speak."

"Great," he said back. Right as he finished speaking, he felt a claw rest on his shoulder. He turned to see the Captain towering over him, staring at him. Judgement Baroness, Yarika. Her shoulders were adorned with Hive skulls, her cloak draped in purple. Wait a minute, he thought, Judgement? They were supposed to be dead.

"You have been requested," she spoke, gesturing to the entrance to the cave.

"You don't want any help holding the line?" he asked.

She shook her head in an oddly human manner before speaking again, "No. Judgement will deal with Taken scourge."

"Well," he added, "I didn't come alone. I have a friend, a sniper, out there, and -"

She stopped him. "Leave them here. Only _your_ presence has been requested." With that, she spun and began towards the Den.

Josh followed, but called out to Persephone first, "If Cobra gets here before we're done, tell them to hold here at the Ember Caves until we're ready. Same goes for Alisa." She nodded in drifted back into phase.

As they walked through the cave entrance, Josh spotted multiple Fallen banners. Winter, Wolves, Exile, and Kings. He hadn't expected the Wolves' flag to ever make a return, nor had he expected to see the Kings' banner outside of the Cosmodrome. They adorned the walls throughout. They walked in silence. At some point, a couple Dregs ran past them, carrying some large machine piece. Then, another pair, with a different item. And then another, and another. He found this strange.

"What do you think those are for?" he asked his Ghost inwardly.

Inside his head, she replied, "Turret emplacement. Pretty old, though. Haven't seen one of those in a very long time, not since before I found you, back when I was looking around Clovis Bray."

"Wait, so is it Fallen?"

"Pretty sure it's actually _human_. They _are_ scavengers, Josh."

They rounded a bend, the Baroness having remained silent the whole way, until it opened into a large natural chamber, skylight shining in from above. It'd been so long since he'd been here. Last time, he'd slain Winter's Archon. He'd heard about another fireteam taking down their Kell through here, and another that'd engaged Skolas here in the City's first encounter with him. There were Fallen bustling around, all adorned in purple. Dregs, Vandals, Shanks, even a Servitor. They'd apparently gotten the Walker operational again, because it was up, staring him down.

The Baroness waved her arm in front of him, and its laser beam shone off, but the turret kept trained on his position.

"So, you guys are really hunkering down here, huh?" he asked the Baroness.

She snapped her eyes to him, giving him an angered stare. "Yes," she spoke, after a while, "We are. No thanks to your City." The coldness was strong in her voice, already soft and raspy due to speaking in a tongue not her own.

"When Winter fell," she enlightened, "Wolves tried to take Winter's Den. Failed. Wolves now serve Judgement as assassins. Remains of Winter and Exile serve Judgement as soldiers. Devils serve as Dregs. Kings almost _lead_ Judgement. Their banners torn from them, serve as memories. New banner for Judgement, the alignment of all Houses."

"Who leads Judgement, then?"

She narrowed her 4 eyes. "Kell of Judgement."

"I thought Judgement didn't have a Kell," Persephone spoke aloud, floating out of phase from behind the Titan. Yarika growled, "You ask too many questions." She pointed up at the Walker. "Up there," she ordered, "Kell wishes to speak to you. You know the way, slayer of Winter." She stormed out of the cave following this, leaving Josh alone with his Ghost and a bunch of possibly angry Fallen who wouldn't be able to understand him. And there was still the massive cannon of a Judgement Walker staring him down. He wasn't incredibly keen on proceeding through here again.

Just as he'd finally worked up the courage to begin up the path, Persephone materialized in front of him, watching him bounce back in alarm. "What?" he grumbled.

"A Warlock just touched down on the Coast. I can't get a solid read, but I think that's our girl."

"Let Eta know she's coming, then, or...," he paused in thought, "Actually, Judgement probably has the Taken under control and if they don't, Cobra will be here soon. Tell him to rendezvous with her. I've gotta deal with this."

* * *

"So, this is Venus," Alisa spoke aloud, blown away by the skyline, and the bright color palette of the place. Comets soared by, and a massive volcano spewed out electric blue magma. In the sky rested a giant Vex structure, casting a massive shadow and blotting out the sun. It painted a very beautiful picture.

"It's beautiful," she concluded. She was still in awe when she decided to ask, "So, why is this place quarantined?"

"Commander Zavala never said, much to disappointment of many. Best guess: overwhelming Taken presence too dangerous for Guardians." Alisa suddenly took note of several Blights corrupting and diminishing the beauty of Venus.

"What about the Moon? There weren't any Taken there the last time I checked." she questioned.

"Not on surface," Violet corrected, "But many Taken dwell beneath in Temple of Crota. Crota once dwelled there, years ago, having slain hundreds of Guardians in a massive but ultimately unsuccessful operation. Crota was eventually defeated by the combined efforts of two legendary fireteams, those being Phoenix and Chimera. This led to the entrance of Oryx into the system, and thus the Taken plague. Multiple City operations have been conducted over the years to eradicate their presence on the Moon and beyond, even decimate the Temple itself, but to no avail. Even worse, multiple attempts to reclaim the throne have been made –"

"Okay, Vi," Alisa whined, "I get it. The Taken are bad and the Moon is unsafe. If you're going to give me a history lesson, at least tell me something relevant."

Violet scoffed as Alisa began walking, "It _is_ relevant! The Taken are a system-wide menace!"

"Okay, yeah, sure, but we're on _Venus_. I asked why the Moon was quarantined, I didn't need the entire history of the Moon."

Her Ghost grumbled, muttering something about preserving the past. "Contact!" she suddenly alerted. Alisa saw it too. There WAS something on her motion tracker, but something was different about it. It wasn't the usual hostile red sector. It was… blue. She immediately saw the source – a Sparrow came flying over the ridge ahead of her and landed right behind her, without a Guardian. Instead, a Hunter dropped down in front of her. He raised his rifle to her chest, her hands instinctively shooting to the air.

"Are you Alisa?" he asked, with a distinctive Southern drawl in his noticeably mechanical voice. Alisa froze, but her Ghost didn't. She felt Arc energy building up in her hand.

"Storm grenade ready," Violet whispered in her head.

"Uhh… y-yes," she stammered. He lowered is weapon, allowing her a wave of relief, "Oh, good. Guess that means I ain't gotta shoot ya."

"Umm," she began, "So who are you?"

He looked offended. "I," he replied, "Am Eta-10, Exo Nightstalker, at your service," he paused, making a lackluster bow. "And you and I," he resumed, reaching his hand out for a shake, "Are going to be working together on this little operation. Come on, we gotta get back to the Ember Caves. I'll explain on the way. You got a Sparrow, right?"

"No," she replied softly, as she shook his hand, somewhat self conscious of this fact.

"Oh, well you can just ride on the back of mine. Plenty of room," he confidently replied, gesturing to his bike, painted in sleek, glossy black. He climbed on, and she followed suit.

"You, uh, might wanna grab on to me," he advised, "There aren't any seatbelts on this thing, you know." She reached her arms around his chest awkwardly, locked her hands across his core. He gunned it, and they started speeding back towards the Caves, emitting bright red SIVA energy from their exhaust.

"What exactly are we doing?" she asked.

"There's some big bad Taken here, so we think, that Josh saw in his head. Something about a 'Taken Atheon' or somethin'," he started to answer, when she interrupted him.

"Wait… Josh?"

"Err… yeah?"

"Titan, bright gold Saint-14 helmet, moderate build, reserved?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, "That's him. You know him?"

"He…" she responded, "Helped me out, around when I'd first gotten revived, a little over a year ago now, in Russia. He got me to the Tower and out of that snowstorm. Ikora also told me it'd be you and Josh, and it hit me then, but I wasn't sure. Josh IS a pretty common name; but, I guess I was right. It's him. Is he okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, he's fine. He saw that shit when he got killed by the Taken. I don't actually have a clue where he is right now. He went into the Winter's Den with some Fallen Captain and his Ghost told me to come rendezvous with you."

"What?"

"What, the Captain? Yeah, the Fallen are on our side, apparently. I know, it's weird. They actually contacted the City, which is why we're back here so soon – we were literally here yesterday. Ikora thinks the Taken might've driven them to desperation, and we're gonna investigate."

Ember Caves, Ishtar Sink, Venus flashed on Alisa's HUD as they flew under a cave ceiling and into an open war-zone, with Fallen up high sniping a legion of Taken pushing their borders.

"I guess the Valus is back," he commented, as they saw a giant Taken Cabal waltz onto the battlefield with Captains and Thrall underfoot. The Valus held a slug launcher and was bombing the Fallen position. A skiff circled above, dropping Shanks into the airspace. The Valus glanced for but a moment at the skiff above, lifted its launcher and fired shot after shot directly into the Fallen craft. The giant slugs punched massive, burning holes through the hull, and the pilot lost control, colliding what was left of the skiff into the Valus in a last-ditch effort. Unfortunately, the Taken saw this coming, and all of the Goblins in the area shielded the Valus, making the effort fruitless. It didn't even take a scratch.

"They've spotted us!" suddenly exclaimed Violet, as a volley of Arc blasts soared through the air at the pair of Guardians.

"Acolyte Eyes!" Anchor warned, exposing himself to Alisa for the first time, allowing her to take in his dark grey shell, "Take cover!" She glanced at her ammunition counter and noticed that at some point she'd, at some point, acquired a couple of Sleeper rounds. As the two sprinted forwards to rock cover. Her motion tracker began to flash red.

"Psions are probably pushing up on us now," Eta called out, "But I honestly don't want to check," he joked. They sat there for a minute, more and more Taken advancing on their position. He cooked a grenade, and lobbed a ball of Void behind and over him. A vortex of violet light shone from the blast, and the Taken stepped back a little, halting.

Eta leaned over, rummaging around his belt until he grabbed a small gold chip. "Here, you're going to need this."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it, your Ghost will know what to do with it. Bring it out."

Violet appeared between the two of them, her recently painted Solar red shell glistening in the Venusian light. "I am a _she_ ," she corrected, "Now let me see." She scanned the object for a few moments, all the while a battle still raging behind them.

"Communications chip. It'll let us hear the rest of the fireteam at all times."

"Figured you'd want that," Eta said, suddenly significantly louder and clearer in her helmet.

"I... can hear you in my head," she whispered.

"And I can hear _you_ in _my_ head, too. It's a fireteam communications chip. That's what it's supposed to do. It's just like your Ghost. You'll hear us in the same place now."

"Fireteam?" she asked, perplexed, "I've never been in a fireteam."

"Well, technically, we aren't a fireteam, but assuming this operation goes well, and you decide to stay with us, we're going back to Zavala to get officially instated."

"Won't Zavala still be mad about us going to Venus?"

Eta shrugged, "He can get over it. Josh has already mentioned trying to talk him into dropping the quarantines, and I'm sure Ikora would agree, as would Cayde, if he were still around."

"Cayde?"

"Hunter Vanguard, he died last month to some dickhead in the Reef. There was a manhunt for the guy, Prince Uldren."

"Shock grenade!" Violet called over the comms, interrupting.

"Don't worry," Eta assured, "That's the Fallen. They're on our side."

"And how can you be so sure of that?" Violet she argued, as the grenade went off on the other side of the rock.

"Because the fuckin' grenade woulda been aimed at US instead of the Taken," he replied, leaning out from his cover to empty a magazine into the horde of Psions.

Violet flew back, resting above Alisa's shoulder, and tutted, "Oh, so you're a vulgar one."

"Yeah, 'guess you could say that," Eta laughed, peaking out and putting a few more rounds into the Taken, "It's just my personality."

The Acolyte Eye was still pounding their position, which prompted Alisa to finally do something about it.

"Vi, I need my Sleeper."

"Sleeper Simulant?" Eta scoffed, "That's nothing. I've got this," he turned to his Ghost, "Spindle."

Anchor groaned, " _Whisper_ , Eta. It's called _Whisper_." But regardless, his high-powered sniper rifle materialized in his hands as he dropped his scout rifle. He dropped an Acolyte immediately, and then its Eye. He had a shot left in the mag, so he shifted his aim to the Taken Valus, the title of whom he'd previously not seen – Mor'as Tau'ug, Champion of Savathûn. He hesitated, suddenly incredibly disturbed, but fired anyway.

"His heart rate is increasing dramatically," Violet spoke inside her head. Alisa could tell something was up.

"You okay?" Alisa asked.

"That Valus, that fucking Taken dickhead… is a Champion of Savathûn," he weakly, yet aggressively, replied, stowing back behind cover to jam another magazine into his rifle. She shot him back a confused glance. "One of those hasn't been seen anywhere other than Io, and not in quite some time. The Taken there were trying to take more Vex without the help of Oryx, a feat that if successful could spell the end of the City. If a Champion is _here_ , then Josh's suspicions are probably right about this being a massive threat. We have to take out that Valus."

Alisa didn't really understand the significance of the situation, having not participated in any of the major conflicts since she'd been alive, which hadn't been that long. She was a scholar at heart, despite her military service of her past life; however, by the Hunter's expression alone, she could tell that this was big. She was ashamed of herself for not knowing the importance; although the name 'Savathûn' did ring a couple bells, she couldn't place it.

"Well, Sleeper has a lot of spread, so let's see if I can hit that bastard," she replied, slowly leaning out of cover. She'd entirely expected to see it still off in the distance, launching slugs or something, but it was rather keen on defying her expectations as it appeared right in front of her, emitting a corrupted Cabal cry, distorted by the Taken influence.

"Shit!" Eta screamed, losing his balance and collapsing backwards as the Valus slammed its slug launcher into the ground. Alisa wouldn't fall as easily. She leapt into the air, gliding towards the beast. Her fist crackled with electricity, all at once discharging it into its face, causing it to lash out at her. She, however, dodged to the side, and squeezed the trigger, releasing a Solar volley of unstable Warmind energy directly into its burning skull.

An electronic sound pierced the battlefield, as a Void vortex suddenly shot into the Valus. He was tethered to it. She turned to see Eta drop from the air, losing the Void aura she'd barely glimpsed. Tau'ug groaned, trying to lift its slug launcher to fire at the Guardians.

"Shoot it while it's weak!" Eta loudly advised.

She squeezed the trigger again and blasted another load into the Valus. She looked to the Valus, still trying to wiggle free of the tether, as an armor piercing round tore into its skull, and it cried out in vulgar agony. And then another. And another. She heard a sound almost like a sword being pulled from its sheath. And then three more rounds. But then the tether wore off.

It roared like a rabid beast, howling with pure rage and raw energy, stomping the ground in front of it, punishing Alisa for staying so close. She went flying in the other direction. She saw the rock wall rapidly approaching her –

* * *

It was dark. And cold. She felt numb. She sat up, and she was starstruck at first. Where the hell was she? What had happened? In front of her stood a massive stone door, which looked Vex. She turned her head to check behind her, and she couldn't see anything. Just thick, grey fog. She turned back to the door.

"Vi, can you open this?" she asked aloud as she picked herself up, her words echoing to depths unknown. She waited for a reply.

"Vi?" She was alone, accompanied by nothing but echoes and dust. She'd have to do this by herself. She stepped forward, towards the door. She gazed up at it, its large size intimidating her. She wasn't sure what to do at first, but when she looked down, her hand was already reaching out to the door. She pressed her opened palm against the stone, and it suddenly shot to life. Indents in the stone that she'd assumed were artistic carvings lit up in white light as the door split apart down the middle, opening into a large chamber, again made of stone. There were vines here. And Vex portals. And Vex. _dead_ Vex. The massive chamber was littered with robot bodies, which was incredibly alarming to her.

Drawing her attention away from the bodies was the appearance of a Taken Blight in a floating platform in the center of the room. It emitted darkness in its mere existence. This darkness began to surround her, choke her.

Indecipherable booming speech suddenly shook the chamber, rattling her thoughts.

A question shook through her bones. A familiar question. "What do you seek?"

Immediately, she replied, as confidently as she could, "I seek answers."

Her reply was met with ominous mechanical laughter, as she suddenly saw a bright blue light erupt from the darkness. Atheon. The giant Vex mind stepped through the darkness, revealing its colors. Black. White. Taken.

"You will not find answers here."

"Then where?" she begged.

The massive machine knelt, locking its gleaming eye with her own.

"Quria is lost to the Vex. I am much harder to be _TAKEN_. Savathûn approaches again. She thinks she can take me. Come here, to the Vault of Glass. Slay her."

"Are… you helping me?" she hazarded.

"You and your species are a plague but…" it paused, taking a glance around before proceeding, "Vex have respect for you. You stop Savathûn, you might stop a war. Do what must be done, Guardian."

"Wait, but – "

* * *

The sounds of battle and rain suddenly flooded her ears, just as the typical orange sky of Venus flooded her vision.

"What happened?" she suddenly heard someone ask.

"Who said that?" she cautiously pursued, still dazed.

"Your Ghost, Alisa," Violet said as she swayed into view, "What happened to you? You wouldn't speak to me while you were down, and I couldn't see anything from you. It was like I'd lost you again."

Alisa sighed as she lifted herself up, finding herself by a cave away from the battle. She rubbed the back of her head, a little sore from being propped up against a rock.

"You remember why we came here?"

"Да – the Titan Josh had vision of Taken Atheon. Why?"

"I saw it."

"Saw… what?" her Ghost slowly asked.

"Atheon."

Her eye widened, and her shell floated back a bit, before leaping forward, "What did you see?"

Alisa grabbed her pulse rifle that lay on the ground beside her, and slapped in a fresh 33-round magazine. "I'll explain later. After we link up with Josh."

Violet blocked her path, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Alisa sighed, "Good enough to fight. Did Eta deal with the Valus?"

"Ah, no, actually," Violet responded, "He fled to the Fallen line after dragging you here. The Valus won't die. It's too strong for a single Guardian – it shot a skiff out of the sky, remember?"

"Right. So… we should probably head up there too, then, right?"

"Да" came Violet's reply.

Alisa was prepared to make a hard dash across the battlefield when her comms crackled to life.

"Hey, uh, Alisa, you gotta get over here to the Winter's Den. Shit's happening really fast, and we think the Fallen might be preparing to leave in Winter's old ship. Right now."

"Uhh, alright," she slowly responded, "I was already on the way."

"Okay, great," he sounded off, before coming back in a second, "Oh! Wait, I almost forgot – we found Variks!"

"Uhh… who's Variks?"


	9. Chapter 9: The Split

**Hey all, sorry I had to take it down earlier. I realized there were a bunch of edits I wanted to make. Pretty sure I somehow inflated the word count by almost a thousand just by using more descriptive language. You're welcome. Anyways, this one took a little bit to make. I kept having interruptions. I'd actually already started on Chapter 10 by the time I took this down to fix it.**

 **Hope you all enjoy! Please, support in any way you can. I'm not asking for money or anything, that's absurd, but just like help me get it out there, ya know? I want more people to be able to enjoy it! Thanks to all who have so far, I really appreciate it!**

* * *

Josh sighed, staring out at where the ketch had sat not even a moment ago. "We should've been on that ship," he complained, kicking his feet in the sand. What of his hair that wasn't matted down from dirt and sand blew in the wind as the massive Fallen vessel shot out a brilliant blue engine glow alongside its massive turbulence. The ketch roared to life, literally shaking the valley it had rested in with the vibrations caused by its engines and overall noise.

Just as it began to lift away, Alisa stumbled into the chamber, laying eyes upon Josh again for the first time in a very long time. He had his knee up on a rock, his rifle to his side, somehow keeping up a stoic tone. His head fell down, staring at his free hand, rubbing together sand as it fell in the wind. He sighed in frustration, wiping the sweat from his brow and the sand off his face. His iconic Helm of Saint-14 sat below, hooked onto his belt. Eta was sat on the ground next to him, staring out into the valley. She couldn't see his face.

She struggled at first, unsure of what to say as she crept towards the two. "Josh?" She finally whispered, grabbing his and his companion's attention.

"Oh," Josh replied, taken aback, as she ran at him and wrapped her arms around his torso, resting her head against his massive black chest plate. His cheeks faded to a bright rose, his expression shifting from angst over the ketch to a warmth as she caressed him. "So," he spoke softly, " _You're_ Alisa. I remember you." She stepped back and looked up at his face. She hadn't noticed their massive height difference the first time they'd met.

"You do?" she whispered.

He nodded. "Yes, yes. Back in Russia, right around when SIVA got loose. You never told me your name. 'Said you weren't sure what you wanted to be called yet."

"Yeah, I… ended up going with what Vi found on the ID card that'd been hanging from my uniform."

"Uniform?" Eta asked, finally joining the conversation.

"Yeah," Alisa replied, "I was in the Russian military in my previous life. Apparently. Don't know a bit of Russian though, somehow, but Vi does."

"I know every language, actually," Violet corrected, tipping her shell down, "except for Eliksni. Never got the hang of that one. Russian just kind of… stuck, for me."

"What?" Alisa asked turning away from the Titan to face her Ghost, "When were you gonna tell me about this?"

Violet scoffed, losing her usual thick Russian accent only to replace it with a distinctly American one, "Alisa, I'm a Ghost. We have to be able to speak every language because there's no telling what language our Guardian will speak. I spoke Russian because we were in Russia – I assumed any Guardian I found there would too." She never did resume that accent.

Alisa looked on in a mixture of shock, confusion, and disregard. She shook her head and turned back to the Titan and Hunter.

"Okay, well, with that out of the way… what did I miss?"

Josh glanced back at the valley before replying, "Variks is behind the united Fallen across the system – "

"Such a shame," Eta interjected, "I always thought he was pretty chill."

"Yes… anyways," Josh continued, "He just fled in the House of Winter's old ketch that they left here after I killed their Archon aboard it a few years ago. You'd think someone would have done something with it before now, but maybe it was out of fuel or something, who knows? Anyways, before he left with his Fallen, we had a chat, and there's a good chance that that 'chat' is why that ketch left without us."

"Why?" Alisa hesitantly asked.

"Well… I may or may not have slammed the butt of my shotgun into his throat and then stared him down with it. His guards almost killed me right then and there, but, uh… I did manage to get some information out of him."

"Oh, well this is news to me," Eta moaned.

Josh shot him an exhausted glance. "The Fallen were, in fact, struggling with the Taken. It's why they left. Wouldn't tell me where they were going, but we'll probably pick them up on sensors somewhere in the system pretty soon unless they decide to leave the solar system. And you remember that Taken Valus you two fought? That wasn't the first time the Fallen had engaged it. It'd been bugging them for months, and it wasn't even the only one. There are other Champions of Savathûn all over Ishtar. He said there were three just outside the Vault of Glass alone, which just further reinforces the need to go there."

"The Vault of Glass…" Alisa pondered, "That… sounds familiar."

"Yeah, it's where six Guardians went in and killed the God of Time itself. Atheon."

"Atheon," she repeated, the revelation dawning on her. "Big, blue, glowing Gate Lord looking thing?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yeah, that's him. Or it was. Until –"

"He was Taken," she concluded.

"Yes, how'd you know?"

"Ikora briefed me, but… I also saw it. I think I might have seen the Vault, too, but I've… I've never been there. Up until this morning, I hadn't even been to Venus."

"Wha… where have you been?" Eta judged.

Her eyes sunk a little as she replied, "Dead. By the time I got out of Russia, Zavala had quarantined most of the system."

"Hey, lay off of her," Josh said, gesturing to Eta, "And that's not what's important. What _is_ important is that… you saw Atheon. How did it happen?"

"That Taken Valus. Mor'as Tau'ug, or whatever. He sent me flying into a rock wall and shattered my neck. I woke up in darkness and fog, in front of a looming stone Vex door, and it opened to reveal a massive chamber. The center was cut out, but there was a smaller platform floating in the middle. Dead Vex, everywhere. Vines and dirt, too. Atheon came through a Blight."

"Did he speak to you?" Josh sternly questioned, stepping towards her as she'd backed off to rest on a rock.

She nodded. "It asked me what I sought, and I told it 'answers.' It said I wouldn't find any there, but that I needed to go to the Vault. Purge it. That a 'Savathûn' was trying to Take him, but she couldn't. That I needed to stop her."

He pondered this a moment, pacing back and forth. "He asked me the same thing. Except he didn't respond as kindly to my answer. I told him 'peace,' and he told me I really wanted war, and then vanished. But that…" he thought for a second, "That settles it. We have to purge the Vault. But… Savathûn? Here? That contradicts what's going on in the Reef right now. This could all be a ploy, or a distraction, or worse."

"Well," Eta drew their attention, tossing a grenade around in his hands, "I say it's about time we finish this, so we can get the hell off this acidic shit-hole."

"What about the Fallen?" Alisa asked.

"Fuck 'em," Eta spat. Usually the laid-back member of the team, the funny one even. His temper, though, was obvious, "They wanna ditch us? Fine by me."

"Well, Variks didn't totally abandon us, actually," Josh corrected.

Perplexed, Eta took the hint, "What, uh… what do you mean?"

"The Fallen that were out there holding the line are still there, to give the Taken the impression that there's still something in here for them to get. I think the Baroness is still out there commanding them."

Alisa crossed her arms, "And how do you know they didn't just hop in a skiff and ditch us so the Taken can come finish us off?"

Realization dawned on Josh. He eyed both of his teammates and agreed, "She's right. We should probably move. If the Fallen are gone, there's nothing left for us here. We need to get to the Vault."

Josh grabbed his helmet and slid it over his head, letting it lock into place as his HUD came online. He reached for his rifle propped up below when he noticed something on his radar.

"Guys," he spoke aloud as he turned to his teammates who were also preparing to leave, "We've got company."

Rather than a horde of Taken rounding the corner, though, came Yarika backpedaling towards them, shouting something in Eliksni as more Fallen poured into the room. Yarika turned around expecting to see a ketch, but instead saw three Guardians prepared to leave.

"You," she whispered, staring at Josh. She grumbled something in Eliksni as she signaled for the Fallen to stop. There weren't many left. A couple of Vandals, four or five Dregs and a Servitor. And Yarika. Before anyone could say anything, white bolts started slamming into the wall from afar. The Taken. Yarika glanced at the team before returning her attention to the oncoming Taken. The meaning was obvious.

Alisa readied her rifle, waiting for the Taken to come through the little hallway that led to the vertically oriented chamber where the Walker had been. A roar echoed through the hallway and out into the valley as a Taken Knight stormed towards the Fallen and Guardians. It fired off boomer rounds, knocking a Dreg off its feet as another threw a shock dagger into its glowing Taken eye. It twitched a little before firing a boomer round directly into the Dreg's chest.

The Baroness was tired of this endless conflict. She shredded the Knight with her shrapnel launcher as the two remaining Vandals tore into it with wire rifles and the Servitor fired Void into it. As it collapsed on itself, a horde of Thrall and Psions poured out from the hallway.

"Cobra has entered atmosphere, they'll be here in a moment!" Persephone notified over comms.

"Hey!" Josh called to the Baroness, "Draw them out, we've got reinforcements coming in."

Alisa wasn't sure what good Cobra was going to do trying to fight through the horde just to link up with them, but she didn't question him, given she'd never met them. For all she knew, he knew something about Cobra that she didn't. But the Fallen did as they were told, as everyone fell back, with the Servitor rising into the air to both shell them and keep their attention. Slowly the Taken forces grew more diversity. Phalanxes, Acolytes, and Goblins steadily showed themselves in the sea of black and white. Alisa and the rest had to start falling back down the incline, with Eta already sprinting down to the massive open area where the ketch had been docked. He lifted his sniper rifle and started taking shots at the Taken from a distance. It started to become apparent that this was a losing battle when more Taken started pouring in from Winter's Run. Mor'as Tau'ug was among them.

"Damnit, there's too many of them!" Eta shouted over comms as his sniper rifle clicked empty, forcing him to try to hit them with his bow, "And where the hell is Cobra?"

As if on cue, immense bullet fire tore through the valley, staggering the Valus. Alisa's queries were answered as she looked up and saw a gunship hovering above her firing two six-barrel miniguns at the Taken. "Right there, Eta. It's the cavalry," Josh joked, shaking his head.

"Oi Josh," spoke a posh, squeaky voice over their fireteam comms, "Long time no see, love. Ya miss me?"

He laughed as he fired a rocket at the Valus, knocking him back and decimating at least twenty Psions around him. "I sure did, Clara. Good to hear from you again. How's about you help us nuke that Valus and then we'll talk?"

Clara laughed back and replied, "Aye aye, cap, and that's Viper to you, ya bloke. I think Sidewinder's got the gunship under control, so how's about Copperhead and I get some of the hands-on action, eh?"

Clara and another woman materialized below the gunship into the firefight. Clara brandished a pulse rifle and began lighting up Taken positions, while the other, presumably this 'Copperhead,' stayed back and sniped the Valus. The gunship fired off a missile, striking the Valus in the shoulder.

"Hit zat zhing vith everything you've got!" cried a voice over the radio. The Valus grew tired of the gunship and fired off slug after slug at the aircraft. One of the bright blue slugs knocked out a missile launcher.

"Sheisse!" the Germanic voice complained, "I vill be back, I've got to make some repairs!"

Seemingly unsatisfied, the Valus shifted aim to the two Hunters sniping him. "Oh shit," swore the Southerner, and the Frenchwoman as well, "Merde." Rightfully so, as six slugs shot from the Valus.

"Come 'ere!" Eta shouted. The Hunter ran to him and he threw down a smoke grenade atop the two of them, shrouding them out of view. The Valus was not happy.

"Josh," Eta whispered, "Do the thing!"

A light bulb seemingly lit up and shattered in Josh's head as he began sprinting towards the Valus from a few hundred meters out.

"Josh!" Alisa cried, "What are you doing?"

Clara stepped to her side and put her arm up in reassurance, "Calm down, love, big man knows what he's doing."

Josh kept picking up speed, slowly building up Arc energy until he quite literally shot into the sky like a SAM and flew back down, crashing into the Valus head on, erupting in an Arc explosion. The great thing cried, collapsing to the ground.

The remaining Taken just stood there, stopped fighting for a moment. Then they got angry. But now they were out of heavy hitters.

"Oi Mia, the big baddie's dead. Come thin the herd!"

"Ja madame! Bringing ze heat!"

* * *

Eventually, the battle had been won. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. The Fallen, however, hadn't fared as well. The Dregs had all died, as well as one of the Vandals. All that remained was an injured Yarika, a heavily damaged Servitor, and a Vandal who'd somehow survived unscathed. The large group met down in the open area.

The remaining Fallen sat in silence a little ways off from the Guardians, licking their wounds. The Servitor tried to muster the Ether to heal Yarika, but it was no use. The machine was too damaged. A chunk of its top was completely missing, loose and damaged circuitry visible.

"That was amazing!" Alisa squealed, jumping with excitement, "How'd you do that?"

Josh shrugged, "I'm gonna be honest with you, Alisa. I don't really know. It just kind of happens." The other fireteam members stood there in the rear, looking stoic. Both of them were now helmetless, allowing Alisa to get a good look at them. One was a very short woman, probably only 5 feet in height, even with armored, heeled boots. Her skin was blue like the stars, her hair a dark purple, and her eyes a bright white. This was 'Copperhead', the sniper, an Awoken. She hadn't heard her speak yet. The other was a taller woman, with short, neat blonde hair and a fair face with fair skin. Her eyes were a gorgeous blue that reflected intensely in the Venusian sunlight. Her shoulders were broader, and she stood a couple heads taller than Copperhead. This was 'Sidewinder,' already revealed to be truly named Mia. She spoke in a distinctly Germanic tone.

"Now about that chat…" Clara asserted, interrupting her inspection, as she tip-toed her way to the Titan, caressing him and him her. Alisa got a good look at her, too. Her eyes were brown, as was her matted-down hair. Her skin was bright, and her face adorned a freckled one. She spoke in a definite British accent. Her height was somewhere in between the other two, although her stature was more similar to Copperhead. Alisa was still dying to know her real name. There wasn't a chance in hell she was going to call someone "Copperhead" in casual conversation.

"By the Traveler, not this again," Eta moaned. He pointed at the Fallen, seeking to avoid these two, "Come on, let's give 'em some privacy. Looks like what's left of the Fallen could use some help." Alisa figured they were lovers or something and didn't ask any questions, although it did hurt her a little. She wasn't really sure why, since she barely knew him.

The group walked over to the Fallen. Yarika had taken to kneeling down on the ground. She appeared to be missing an arm. The Vandal sat trying to tend to her wounds, but there was so much blood. The Servitor couldn't even do anything to stop it. But they could.

Eta knelt next to the Baroness, calling Anchor to bear. "Anchor, can you do anything to fix this?"

His Ghost shook its shell, "I don't have enough glimmer."

"How much do you need?" Alisa asked, hoping to be helpful.

"At least another twenty thousand," Anchor worriedly replied.

"Well lucky for us, I happen to have 30k just on me right now," she said, summoning Violet, telling her Ghost, "Give it to him."

The two Ghosts let a blue beam pass between them for but a second, and then Anchor turned to the wounded Fallen and cast the same beam on her wound.

"You can't rebuild her arm, can you?" Mia asked.

"No," Anchor replied, "Although if I had more glimmer I probably could. No, for now it's just to adequately close the wound."

The Vandal clicked something in Eliksni, drawing Yarika's gaze. It seemed to have upset her. She shook the Ghost off of her and tried to stand, growling. Eta put his hand out and she slapped it away, Fallen blood still pouring from the half-covered wound.

"Hey, we're trying to help you!" Eta burst.

"I need not the assistance of you _vermin_ ," she threatened, "I am Eliksni _pride_."

"Says the one who got left by her Kell," Eta shot back, his hand already on his knife.

"Hey, hey, hey, stop!" Alisa warned, standing between the two with her arms apart, "We're on the same side, you two."

Yarika scoffed. She growled, "You are nothing to me." She shoved the Warlock out of the way, knocking Alisa to the ground, beginning to storm off.

"Ow!" Alisa cried, falling flat on her butt.

"Oh, you little _shit_ ," Eta shouted as he chased after the Baroness. Something of note was that the Vandal and Servitor remained. Mia turned to the Vandal and pulled out her Ghost. She didn't speak any Eliksni, so she tried her best to mime what she meant – she pointed from her Ghost to the hole in the Servitor. It took the Vandal a little bit to get it, but eventually he nodded.

Mia turned behind her and spoke, "Sarah, go make sure ze Warlock is alright." Sarah sighed and walked over to her.

Sarah. Her name was Sarah. Why did that sound familiar to her?

"How much glimmer do we have, Vector?" she asked her Ghost. He flew over the shell of the Servitor trying to assess the damage. "Uhhh… we've got about 40,000, I think. Not sure if that'll cut it, but I'll try."

While Mia tended to the Servitor, Sarah walked over to the Warlock still sitting on the ground in the same position she'd fallen into. "You okay?" she asked, reaching her hand out, revealing her French accent. She found it odd that all of Cobra had a European accent of some kind. Alisa took her hand, though, and lifted herself up, "Yeah, I'm… fine. That just kind of hurt. That was really mean of her," yielding a light-hearted chuckle in response from Sarah.

Alisa glanced over at Josh and Clara off away from the group. two sat together hanging over the edge of a cliffside, Clara's head leaning on his shoulder, his arm slung around her. It didn't look like they were lovers. Rather, they looked like they'd been friends for a long time. Something about it she could feel.

"So, they know each other?" Alisa asked the Hunter.

Sarah hadn't really expected the question so took a moment before responding, "Oui. Why they never started a fireteam is beyond me. He was with her when I joined Cobra, but he left shortly after. They've run a lot of missions together over ze years."

"The years?" Alisa bewildered.

"Oui, I believe Joshua was revived around six or seven years ago and Clara was almost exactly six."

"Oh. That's good."

"You don't sound too enthused," Sarah noted.

"I just didn't realize he'd been around that long, I guess. He did seem to know what he was doing back in Russia, though. Up until today, I hadn't seen him since then, though. Hadn't really thought about it."

"Russia? Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"That I was revived in Russia? Yeah, right before it was quarantined. I still remember it pretty well. It was freaking freezing, and Violet told me I was a sergeant in the Russian army. It was all so strange."

Sarah was strangely intrigued now. "Where were you revived?"

"I didn't have a helmet or HUD at first, so I don't know. First thing I ever saw was 'Dock 13, Cosmodrome, Old Russia.'"

"What about your Ghost? Does it know?"

Prompt as always, Violet slowly drifted out from behind Alisa and spoke up, "The Breach is what the City identifies it as, but she was actually outside the Wall."

Sarah pondered this for a moment. "And that's not… strange to you, at all?"

"No? Should it be?" Alisa asked, now kind of worried.

"The Silent Fang assassinated a Warlock out there a few years ago. Shot her Ghost. Her fireteam couldn't do anything to save her. They watched in horror as the Fallen tore her limb from limb. Like animals." Sarah was visibly distressed. This seemed like a tale that was difficult for her to tell.

"I… hadn't heard about that, actually. If I may ask, how'd you find out about it?"

Sarah sighed, but remained silent outside of that. She rubbed her arm like she was nervous. Worried she'd accidentally struck a nerve, Alisa immediately went into damage control.

"Sarah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to – "

"I was in ze fireteam," she struggled, stopping her, "I watched her die."

Alisa put her hand on her shoulder, "I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean – "

"No," Sarah cut, "It isn't your fault. It just… it made me think about her. If she'd been given another chance at life… through you…"

Alisa hugged her tight. She hadn't even expected her to open herself up so much so quickly. They'd only just met. But it didn't feel that way to Sarah, she guessed. She could feel the tears starting to soak into her robe. She didn't know this woman at all, but she could feel the pain. She felt bad. She felt… a connection.

Suddenly she broke off, catching a hurt stare from Sarah.

"Wait here," Alisa told her, "I'll be right back."

Alisa walked off and tapped into her fireteam comm, "Josh, get everyone together, start preparing to do some recon. We need as much intel as we can get."

"And what are you going to do?" he replied.

"I've… gotta do something. I'm taking Sarah with me. We'll be back by tomorrow at the latest."

"Wha… Alisa, you can't just – "

"Josh, this is important. Just do some recon. Take it easy. We all need the break."

He sat silent for a minute, before replying, "I guess you're right. What about Eta? I can't even reach him."

Mia laughed. "To hell with him."

Alisa sighed, "He went chasing after the Baroness, so I'm sure he's fine. He, again, has a Fallen Baroness. And he's got his Ghost. I trust him."

Josh chuckled, "You literally just met him like a few hours ago."

"He hasn't died yet this op, I've been told," she replied.

Josh didn't find this entertaining but conceded to drop it and trust Eta's skill and judgement. He did, however, have more questions, "What do we do with the Fallen?"

Alisa glanced back at them. Mia's Ghost had gotten the Servitor working again, which gave Alisa an idea. "Any of you know Eliksni?"

"I do," Clara chimed.

"Then I think you can guess where I'm going with this."

"Yeah, yeah. We'll let 'em tag along. What about Ikora? Should we tell her?"

Alisa shook her head, "With where we're going, I'm not sure even Ikora will approve. She _probably_ will, but I'd rather not risk it. She said to check on the Fallen and investigate the Vault. Let's not overcomplicate it for her."

Josh sighed again, "You sure Eta's gonna be alright?"

"Josh, it's sweet that you care that much about him, but he'll be _fine_. In fact, he'll be more than fine."

"And why's that?"

"He still has my freaking glimmer."

* * *

 **For the record, Mia and Sarah will not have any further foreign nuances (e.g. "ze" instead of "the"), just remember their accents. Like I'm not gonna keep typing that stuff because I don't trust myself to remember. Anyways, 10 is already in the works. I'm thinking of keeping progress up on my Twitter. Does that sound like something any of you would be interested in? If so, please do let me know.**


	10. Chapter 10: Temple

**Hey guys! I'm sorry it took so long. Almost two weeks since the last update! Uhhh... I'm going to go ahead and give a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends, since that's less than two days away from when this is being released. I am really sorry it took so long to get Chapter 10 out, but I've had a lot less time recently.**

 **Additionally, unfortunately, I won't have a lot of time in the coming weeks, so further updates might be even slower than this one, but I'm honestly unsure. Regardless, I hope that this plays out well. I still need to work on the prologue right now: although I'm actually quite satisfied with it, it needs to be extended... or does it? I honestly don't know. If any of you have any suggestions or anything, you're more than welcome to provide them.**

 **Something I've been considering is keeping up-to-date through my Twitter, of the same username, so if any of you are interested in that please let me know. I thank you all for supporting me and this story thus far, and I hope you'll all enjoy this chapter! It's quite dialogue heavy, but it, like one a few chapters back, is important for storytelling. Not everything has to be a gunfight. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

"So, I guess we're taking the gunship?" Clara asked aloud. Alisa and Sarah had already jetted off to places unknown in Alisa's ship, and Eta was still unaccounted for.

"Well," Josh replied, smugly, "I don't know about _we._ I was thinking that one of us could fly and provide aerial recon while the other two can do some proper recon in the jungle.

Mia sighed, "I guess I will start go start the engine."

"Actually," Josh stopped, "Wouldn't it make more sense if you two went on foot and I flew? I mean, I am a Titan after all. We aren't scouts. That's your specialty, Hunters."

"No," Mia immediately responded, visibly and audibly annoyed, "There is no way I'm letting a Titan fly _my_ ship."

"Hold on now, love, he's got a point," Clara interjected.

Mia pouted, still unwilling. Josh stepped towards her, open arms, speaking, "Come on, Mia. I promise I won't even get a _scratch_ on it."

"Fine," she conceded, "But I'll hold you to that. If I see a single scratch on it, I'll have your head." She was still as feisty as Josh remembered. He, on the other hand, was quite satisfied.

He smiled, "Great, I won't let you down."

"But what about the Fallen?"

He rubbed his chin in thought. "I guess the Vandal could help with recon with the two of you. He's got a wire rifle, after all. So… that means I get to hold the Servitor with me on the Gunship."

"By the Traveler," Mia moaned, "There's going to be a Titan _and_ a Servitor on my gunship?" She sighed, mostly defeated.

"You sure he's going to be okay with that? That Servitor's probably the only thing keeping him from freaking out," Clara observed.

"Well," Josh proposed, "Let's ask him."

As the trio walked over to the Fallen, Mia made another point, "At this point, we should also probably find out his name." Everyone agreed, so Clara asked.

The Vandal, now determined to be Makis, was, predictably, unhappy with the suggestion to separate with the Servitor, however for differing reasons. Makis proposed that the Servitor was the only way for them to reach the Baroness, Variks, or any other Fallen. They weren't like Guardians, with phones in their heads. That gave him comfort.

"Alright, well, do we think that we can keep that thing out of sight?" Mia asked, and Clara translated. Makis looked at the Servitor, then back at the Guardians, and nodded.

"Guess you're going to be alone up there then, Josh," Mia stated proudly, expecting to hear a snarky remark from the Titan, but instead seeing him absent. "Where did he go?"

"He's in the gunship," Clara answered as it inched towards them, before precisely spinning and opening its rear hatch.

"What's he doing?" Mia asked.

Over comms, he answered, "You don't want to walk all the way to the Citadel, do you?"

This confused Mia. "We have Sparrows?"

"The Fallen don't," he clarified, as the gunship edged closer for everyone to climb aboard. "Nice ship you got, Mia. You mind if I take a nap while you guys do your recon down there?"

"Touch my cot," she replied, drawing her knife, "And I stab you."

"Hey," Clara called as she walked up to the pilot's seat and gave Josh a peck on the cheek, "Cool off, will ya?" She turned to look at Josh before whispering to him, "Take it easy up here. Just make her bed up if you use it, which you should. You could use the sleep."

"Have I even told y'all why we came back here?" he asked.

"Maybe," she rubbed her chin, "But why don't you refresh our memories?"

He nodded. "The Taken, presumably Savathûn, are doing some weird shit here, for starters. I'd gotten done with an op on Europa and had been taking a much-needed rest aboard my ship when PC woke me up. We were staring at fucking Venus. I, of course, asked her why, and she said there was a massive Blight there. Eta saw it too, apparently, but I didn't."

"No Blight when we came in," Clara replied, "At least not that we could tell."

Hyper, Clara's Ghost, spoke up, for the first time this operation, in a bright and bubbly voice, "Actually, I saw a Blight. Massive. Probably at least a couple kilometers across."

"I saw it, too," said Mia's Ghost, Vector, in a much deeper, masculine manner, "I assumed you all saw it and didn't say anything since I figured it was why we were called."

Josh spun around in his chair to face the crew as they slowly cruised towards Campus-9. "That's… odd," he observed, "So what, only machines and constructs can see it? That's fucking wacky." He turned to his Ghost who was floating above his shoulder, "PC, can you still detect it or anything?"

She shook her shell, "No, I could only see it from orbit. Remember, we went up the Citadel to try to get a better angle on it?"

"Yeah," he scoffed, "And you never told me anything about it."

"Oh," she fluttered, "Must've slipped my mind."

"Alright, well, that's a peculiar piece of information. I wonder what it means? Really wish Alisa hadn't run off right about now," he shook his head, "Whatever. Anyways, like PC said, we climbed the Citadel to try to get an angle on it and never saw anything except a metric shit-ton of Taken up there, which is where the interesting part comes in. You see, it's happened twice so far, three if you count Alisa –"

"What's happened twice?" Mia asked.

He sighed, "I was getting to that. The first time, I got smacked off a platform by a Taken Phalanx. I died, like usual. Nothing special, right? You know, you can usually just kind of see what's happening around you through your Ghost until you've either got the energy to respawn or you get revived?"

They nodded.

"Well, that didn't happen. I woke up in a… in a forest. The first time, at least. Pitch black, couldn't see a damn thing. But there was a massive tree in what I assume was the center. It was brighter, much brighter than anything else I could see at the moment. Still don't know what it meant, but that wasn't all. After wandering around for a while, since I couldn't do anything else, I saw some light. It was brilliant and white, but it turned black and blue. A shape came out of the dark. A Vex shape."

"I'm already getting the chills!" cried Hyper as she cowered behind Clara, prompting Clara to hush her Ghost.

"Then, the second time, I was impaled by a Taken Captain. All of the Taken, by the way, had seemed more coordinated during the conflict. Eta picked me up pretty quickly, but I was out cold for a while because, of course, I was dreaming. I awoke in the Vault of Glass, at Atheon's chamber, and I saw him, too. Atheon. He was there."

"Definitely dreaming, love," Clara laughed, "Atheon's dead. We were there. You fired the killing blow."

"Yeah, I thought he was dead, too," Josh replied, "But no, a fate far worse has occurred him."

"Okay," Mia spoke, rolling her eyes, "Then what _did_ happen to him?"

Josh sighed. "He was Taken."

Mia scoffed, "You're joking, right?"

Josh's expression remained dead serious as he replied, "No, I'm not. That's why I called you girls here."

"Bloody hell," Clara whispered, her face pale, "What, uh… what about the Fallen? How do they tie into this?" she asked, gesturing to Makis and the Servitor.

"Well, initially we weren't sure," he answered, "We just knew that they'd sent out a distress signal and the Tower had intercepted it. Ikora made it sound like it was directed to the Tower, but I've seen no evidence to suggest that. I think it's more likely they were just calling for help from anyone they could get – Guardians, Red Legion, other Fallen, anybody. From what I can gather, the Fallen were being harassed by the Taken and nothing more. I don't think they were being targeted like Alisa and I have."

"Perhaps the Taken used the Fallen as a lure, to get you here," Vector hypothesized, "What for I can't imagine, but it's a possibility."

Josh nodded. "Absolutely. There has to be a reason that Alisa and I saw the things we did, and a Taken plot doesn't seem unlikely," he agreed.

"What about a Vex plot?" Persephone proposed, "Alisa mentioned before that Atheon spoke to her about cleansing the Vault. It has to be related."

"You're right," he said, "That must've slipped my mind."

"Hold on," Mia stopped, "Atheon _spoke_?"

"Oh," Josh replied, "Right. Guess I forgot to mention that. He spoke to me, too. He asked us what we wanted. I told him 'peace' and he got really pissed off, called me a liar. I guess that's a normal reaction to the destroyer of your species saying he wants peace, though. Alisa told him 'answers,' and he gave a much more polite response. Said that she wouldn't find any there, but that she needed to go to the Vault and purge it. That Savathûn was trying to take Atheon."

"That still doesn't make any sense. How could Atheon possibly be alive?" Clara questioned.

Josh shrugged, "He is the God of Time, and the Vault does exist outside of space and time, so it's not unreasonable to assume that it'd be pretty easy for there to be multiple Atheons or something."

"Well, shit, if Savathûn is at play, we may have more than one Atheon to worry about," Clara warned, "Remember Io? I don't think I like the idea of her taking more Vex on such a massive scale, especially if it involves the Vault. If she controlled the Vex God of Time, then there'd literally be no end to her power."

"We've got to get in there, then," Mia said, a worried tone to her voice, "Before something catastrophic happens."

Josh let his arms go wide and sighed, "With what, just us three? No, we've got to use this time for reconnaissance. Don't forget the Champions that are supposed to be out there. They could certainly complicate our way in."

"Or will they?" Mia contemplated, stepping past the Titan and inspecting her console. "What if we blast our way in?" she asked, turning back to the group, "The Wolves tried before, but they didn't have the kind of ordnance _I_ have."

Josh scoffed, "What ordnance?"

"You remember the missile I tore through the Champion with? There's a lot more where that came from, and I've got bigger stuff in the cargo bay. We wouldn't even need to approach from the ground - we could make our own door from above."

"Damn," Josh observed, crossing his arms as he leaned against the back of the pilot's seat. "If that's true, then that's some serious firepower that could solve a good few problems. You think that if we could get a transmat going, we could use the gunship inside the Vault?"

"How could we get a transmat through there, though?" Hyper wondered.

The Titan shrugged, "It's like you said," he gestured to Mia, "We blast our way in. Keep punching holes through so a transmat signal can get out of there."

"I'm… not sure my ordnance can handle that," she hesitated, "I said it could punch through Vex stone. I'm not so sure about solid bedrock. I'm also not sure that, even if we get could a transmat in there, that the gunship would fit. Maybe good enough for the Labyrinth and the Puzzle, but I don't remember Atheon's chamber being tremendously large."

"Hmmm," he pondered in response, "Ya know, that's a good point. I haven't exactly been to the Vault in quite a while, though, so I don't remember."

Mia sighed, "It's an idea though. I know for almost certain that I can at least get us in the Vault without even engaging the Champions. Might make exfil a bit difficult, though."

"I think we might have other more pressing issues," Clara observed, leaning out one of the viewports.

"That is… a lot of Taken," Mia commented. The gunship had finally arrived at Campus-9. The last time anyone had been here, it'd been the site of a Fallen offensive against the Vex steppes. No Taken. Now, there weren't any Fallen in sight, and only the remains of once prominent Vex. Another Champion. This time, a former Fallen leader, 'Krasis, Champion of Savathûn.' It was hulking, and it was doing something down below, but no one could tell what. There were hundreds of Taken troops – Goblins, Phalanxes, Thrall, Psions, Vandals, Acolytes, Wizards, Centurions, and Knights. It was like a pool of colorless electricity flowing and slithering about the Campus.

"You girls sure you still want to drop in here?" Josh asked.

"They're going to know we're coming now," Clara complained, "Why are they even here?"

"There was a Vex Gate Lord and a giant Harpy in a cave past here. They're probably waiting for their plan to be enacted so they can time travel and Take them," Josh assumed.

"This is going to suck," Mia complained, facepalming.

Clara sighed, "I hope Sarah and Alisa are faring better right about now."

* * *

"Alisa, you still haven't told me where we're going," Sarah moaned.

"Well, we're almost there, so it won't matter in like… five minutes," Alisa replied from the pilot's seat. While she kept the ship on course, her Ghost flew back to her quarters to keep the Awoken company.

"You do have a Ghost, right?" Violet asked.

"Yes, he's just… quiet. He's spoken maybe twenty sentences in the entire time I've known him," came her reply, as a stark white Ghost shell flew out from behind her. It was scarred. His light was completely extinguished, a large cut running across the front of the shell through it. Just black emptiness filled the center of the shell. He tipped his shell to Violet, like a kind man tipping his hat. Except without hands.

Sarah shrugged, "Maybe we just connected differently. I guess it would make sense, since I'm Reef-born. I wasn't revived. He sought me out, though, when I was working a contract. That was the most he's ever spoken to me."

"You're Reef-born?" astonishingly asked Alisa from the cockpit.

"Yeah. I don't know of any other Guardians like that, except –"

"Zavala," Violet finished.

She nodded, "Yes. There may be more, but I've never met them. Then again, I don't see a whole lot of interaction with other Guardians outside of Cobra. We've largely been a tight-knit fireteam since Temple founded it."

"Wait, so it was you, Temple, and…?" Alisa asked.

"Clara," she clarified, "And for a while after we lost Temple, it was just her and I, for which I'm thankful. She helped keep me sane for a long time. Mia joined us maybe a year after it happened. Originally, it was forcefully, too. Zavala was tired of us running around on our own, and Cayde wasn't too happy either. He was worried about us, though, unlike Zavala, who was just being Zavala." She managed a laugh, but her expression only got worse.

"I don't think she's okay," Violet whispered into Alisa's head.

"Vi, take the controls," Alisa sternly called, as she got out of the seat. She meandered back to the quarters as her Ghost flew past her. Sarah was sat next to a viewport, staring into the stars. Alisa walked over and sat down across from her, her hands falling atop Sarah's.

"Hey," she whispered, prompting a glance from the Awoken, "It's –"

"Okay, I know," Sarah completed. She sighed, but pressed on, "Eventually, we warmed up to Mia. Cayde took a liking to her, too. They were a lot alike. His passing probably hit her more than it did me, but she'd never show it."

"You weren't that close to Cayde?"

She shook her head, "No, not quite. Our personalities didn't quite mesh, what with my quiet and stoic nature and his loud and obnoxious idiosyncrasies. I did rather take a liking to Ikora, however. We've become good friends over the past few years, but especially since Cayde. She was closer to him than anyone else could've ever hoped to be. I'd like to think I was to her, for a time, as Clara was to me.

"That being said, I'd never go back to the Reef. Not even for her. I'm happy Uldren's in the ground, but I wasn't gonna be the one to do it."

"Who's Uldren? Name sounds familiar."

" _Prince_ Uldren. Or, at least, he was, up until the Taken War, at least. No one really knows what happened to him, but he went crazy or something and shot Cayde. He killed him. He fled into the Tangled Shore and then into the Dreaming City. The Reef. If I'm correct, fireteam Wraith went in there and killed him. Found a whole damn Taken infestation." She sighed, "Place used to be beautiful."

"Yeah, I've been there. Recently. There's… a curse. The Taken just keep corrupting the City further and further until it starts over again. It's an endless cycle," Alisa remarked.

Sarah raised an eyebrow, "You've been to the Dreaming City?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "I went there with Rhino. Helped them out on a couple ops. There are Guardians all over the Reef right now, though. The Shore included."

Right as Sarah opened her mouth to continue, Violet flew back into the room and announced their arrival. Alisa glanced at Sarah's kit – lightweight and maneuverable. It was thin, skin-tight even, like a catsuit. Her cloak flowed down to her ankles, equally thin and lacking insulation. Alisa, in contrast, had thick Warlocks robes designed for blast absorption but equally efficient at maintaining heat.

"You might want to wear something a little bit heavier here," Alisa advised, warmth in her voice.

Sarah looked down at herself as she donned her open-visored helmet and then back at the Warlock, a little bit hurt, "What's wrong with what I have?"

Alisa laughed, "It's going to be cold out there."

"Fine," she sighed, not needing much convincing as she glanced out the viewport to see an intense snowstorm, "Alisa… where are we?"

"Well, since we're here, you might as well know," she called from the rear hatch which had been opened. She waited for Sarah to come around to see the view for herself, with heavier, EDZ armor she'd dug out of her Vault on. Sarah stumbled into the light, her HUD displaying 'The Wall, Cosmodrome, Old Russia.' Alisa made it seem like a grand show, waving her arm out like she was presenting a product, a bright, wide smile upon her face, "The Cosmodrome!"

Sarah was silent, staring out at the snow, until a word escaped her lips, "Why?"

Alisa took her hand and whispered, "Trust me," as she threw on her helmet with her other hand, letting her Ghost lock it into place for her.

"Now," she said, as the two leapt off the jumpship, their boots digging into the snow, "Show me where it happened."

"Wha…" Sarah replied, mortified, "Show you where my friend _died_?"

"Yes. Show me."

Sarah reluctantly led the Warlock to the very spot. There was ice surrounding a rock outcropping, and a little plank of wood sticking out of the ground. Sarah stopped a few meters away from it.

"Is that it?" Alisa asked, pointing to it.

Sarah slowly nodded. Alisa strode toward it, letting go of the Hunter. As she arrived at the base of the grave, she turned back to Sarah and whispered, "I need you with me. Please. Just trust me." But Sarah remained still. Alisa held out her hand. "What are you going to do?" Sarah asked.

"I'm gonna make it better, Sarah, but I need you to trust me."

Sarah slowly stepped towards her, taking her open hand. Alisa turned back to the shrine and stepped closer to it. With her free hand, she reached out, as if to grab the shrine itself.

"Is her Ghost buried with her?"

"Yes."

"Perfect," she nodded, pausing, "Okay, okay, alright, this will work. I need you to tell me about her. What was her name?"

"She went by Temple. I never knew her by any other name."

"What was her class? Her… race?"

"Warlock. Human."

"What was she like?"

"She was sweet, and kind. She was motherly, almost. She could make just about anyone feel loved."

"Physical appearance. What did she look like, what was her build?"

"She was tall and muscular. I haven't a clue what her natural hair color was, as she always wore it bright white, tied back. Hazel eyes. Colorful lips," the Awoken shrugged, "I… I'm not sure what else you want."

"No, that's good," Alisa assured, "I've got this. You can let go now," she said, as a bright light exploded from the grave and surrounded them. It didn't dissipate. It engulfed them, like a shield around their location, where even the snow couldn't get through, instead piling on top of it. Sarah stepped back in awe, before planting herself on the suddenly not ice- or snow-covered ground. She looked around and didn't see Alisa.

She called out to her, "Alisa? What did you do? Are you okay?" It remained silent for a time – not even the whirlwind of the blizzard was audible. This prompted Sarah to try to summon her Ghost. "Lethal, are you there? Can you hear me?" Her Ghost materialized in front of her and nodded. "Can you… make any sense of this?" she asked him.

"Warlock magic," he replied in a deep, gravelly and mechanical voice. "I think she's trying to show you something. Give her a minute," he concluded. So, she waited. She could see the makeshift grave through the light, standing out against it. She remembered when they'd planted it there. They hadn't had much on hand, but they did what they could. They couldn't just leave her body there for the Hive to feast on, so they spent a couple hours digging that hole where her body still remained. In a strange way, she wanted to see it again. She thought that maybe it would give her some sort of comfort or closure, but as she mulled it over more she grew less certain. It saddened her, though. She'd already come to terms long ago with the fact that she'd never see Temple again, but somehow this whole ordeal shook that cage loose and –

Startlingly, a figure emerged from the light, draped in contrasting black. The figure strode at first gracefully, but then stumbled onto the floor below the stone. As the figure began to lift itself up, Sarah drew her sidearm and screamed, "What the hell are you?" Her grip was unsteady.

"Sarah?" the figure whispered, revealing herself to be female. Her voice… Sarah recognized. Immediately. It was mature, and heavy, elderly even.

"No…" Sarah spoke back, "No, you're… you're dead!"

"Calm down, kiddo," the form assured. It began to change. No longer black, its shroud falling, as it revealed itself to be ethereal. Human. Or, at least, it had been human, and it had been a she. It was Temple. In some otherworldly way, Sarah was staring at her former friend and carer.

"How?" Sarah asked, astonished, continuing to clutch her sidearm, "Where's Alisa?"

The old Warlock laughed, shaking her head, "I thought you'd be at least a little happier to see me."

"No, I am," she stammered, stepping towards the specter. She tried to hold her, but her hands drifted through the shimmer. Her grip loosened around her weapon and it fell to the ground. "I just... I don't understand. How are you here?"

"Well, to put it simply," she replied heartily, "If I weren't a Warlock, this wouldn't be possible."

"What do you -" she started to protest, but was halted again.

"I don't have a lot of time. I don't think, uh... Alisa, was it? I don't think she's the most trained in this kind of thing. I'm sure she'll explain when I'm gone."

"No, no, no," she stammered, her eyes a waterfall, "Don't leave me again. I... I can't."

Temple smiled, resting her ethereal hand on her shoulder, "You can, and you will. You're strong. You can do this." The Warlock sighed, shifting subjects, "So, you're probably wondering why I'm here. It's for you. I could be up there," she said, pointing to the sky, "In the clouds, walking among the dead right now, like I usually would be. But right now, you need me."

Sarah phased through the Warlock, but she did not do the same. Temple held her in her arms, letting her head rest on her chest. Sarah could almost feel the warmth for a second, as if she was alive. She was still so scared and confused.

"In spite of her... well, let's call her a 'novice.' In spite of that, though, she's tough. She'll help you. She already has. Trust her," Temple spoke.

Sarah felt her insides spilling out, like every wall she'd ever put up was being demolished. In this moment she was weak, vulnerable, and helpless. But she felt warm. Loved.

"I promise you," she said, as she stepped back, "You don't need me. Not anymore. You're doing great, Sarah. I'm so proud of you."

"No, wait," Sarah whimpered as the figure backed away, "Please, don't leave me, I need you!"

"Kiddo, you've gone this far without me. Let me go. It's for the best. You've got a new Temple now."

"Temple, no!" she cried, but it was too late.

"So long, kiddo. Stay safe." Sarah half expected her to dissipate into mist or smoke, but instead, she collapsed to the ground, changing. It was...

"Alisa?"


	11. Chapter 11: Into The Hollow

**Sorry this one's a little short and disjointed, but next one will hopefully make up for it. I've got plans, big plans, that I just can't wait to share!**

* * *

"That took a lot more out of me than I expected it to," Alisa staggered, the Warlock magic failing, as all the snow that had piled up atop the shield fell at once onto them. Sarah had to dig her way out of it, finding Alisa on the surface instead. Her face still tear-stained, Sarah lifted the Warlock up and dragged her back to the jumpship, the snowstorm still pounding down on them.

"Violet!" Sarah shouted over the cacophonous winds, "Open the hatch!"

The doorway opened to reveal its dark interior, Sarah climbing through and pulling Alisa with her. She crept to Alisa's quarters as Violet shut the door behind them. She laid Alisa down on her cot and collapsed on the metal next to her, struggling for air, as the lights shot on from above.

"Violet," she gasped, "Heat. Please." Violet flew out from Alisa's figure and slid over to the console under the room's singular viewport.

"Yes, yes, I know," the Ghost muttered, "We need to get out of this storm or the engines will freeze. Can you fly?"

"I've got a little bit of experience," she spoke, barely able to get to her feet, "But I feel like I just took a Taken Captain's onslaught right now. That storm and these… feelings. I don't know if I can."

As the air began to warm around them, Violet paused for a moment before proceeding, "It's fine, it's fine, I should be able to get this thing working. Get your Ghost our here, I'm going to need help."

Sarah nodded, reaching her hand out to let Lethal fly out from phase. "Will Alisa be okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, she'll be fine, she just needs rest. If she'd actually asked me beforehand I would've told her it was too much for her, but here we are," Violet replied as she floated about the cockpit, frantically trying to keep the ship together, "It's going to get a lot colder if we don't get out of this soon."

* * *

"Ya know we're gonna have to go clear out Campus-9 eventually, right?" Clara whispered, shifting slightly in the foliage. The Hunters and Fallen were advancing on the Vault of Glass trying to gather intelligence. Rather than land at Campus-9 like they'd originally planned, Josh had assured them that the Citadel was a much safer drop zone, and so they deployed there instead.

"No, we don't, someone else can do it," Mia replied.

"Mia!" Clara squealed, " _You_ have the gunship! They'd need that kind of firepower!"

The German scoffed, pressing on through the brush. Makis advised them to remain vigilant, as there could easily be Taken sentries along the treeline. Mia drew a pair of binoculars and checked the treeline. From what she could see, luckily, they were clear.

"You don't think they'd use Minotaurs, do you?" Clara speculated.

"Minotaurs aren't snipers so I don't think so, but you raise a valid point. Their camouflage would be incredibly efficient," Mia replied, "Just stay hidden and we'll be fine. I imagine the only one that'll be difficult is the Servitor back there," she concluded, motioning to he Fallen machine hovering in the rear, completely exposed, emitting its notable and consistent hum.

"Although," Mia whispered, "If we're lucky, they'll think the Servitor is just a Fallen straggler and we can sneak by." Just as they were coming around to face the Vault, they heard gunfire from its entrance. Clara peered around the stone and saw Solar blasts coming from –

"Yarika!" Mia exclaimed. This certainly caught Makis' attention, as he snuck out from behind and peered through his wire scope to confirm the truth. Mia groaned, "I don't have a good angle. I need to move back east." She stepped away from the stone and ran for the cliffs, binoculars in hand. Clara motioned for the Fallen to move with her along the rock wall to get up to the pathway to the Vault, rather than sprint straight across open ground. Oddly enough, there weren't any Taken out in the field. They couldn't see _any_ Taken, actually, which, after the way this operation had been going, was both relieving and terrifying.

"Uhh… Clara?" Mia spoke over comms.

"Yeah?" she answered in turn.

"You know how I was talking about bombing our way into the Vault?"

"…Yeah?"

"I don't think that's going to be necessary."

"What do you mean?" Clara wondered.

"The Taken appear to have _torn_ the door open, and now Thrall are pouring out of it. Yarika is cutting them down, quite brutally, which I guess is reasonable," she informed. It seemed that the lack of Taken was short-lived.

Clara thought it over. Stealth really wasn't necessary now, she assumed. "Alright!" she called, "Let's move!"

As Clara was sprinting up to the Vault, Hyper alerted her to an incoming transmission.

"Persephone?" she mumbled.

"We found Eta!" Persephone screamed with joy upon the opening of the call.

"Ow, shit. Don't scream in my ear like that. And… what?"

"Yeah, yeah, Anchor called _us_ , but we know that Eta happens to be incredibly close to you. Right about the to clear the Ishtar Cliffs now, actually. Figured you might be able to do something with that."

"Interesting," Clara thoughtfully replied.

* * *

Eta kept up the speed, pushing his Sparrow to its limit as he rounded the bend into the Waking Ruins. He glanced off the eastern cliffs. He was distant, and he knew his Ghost was worried about him. A storm was brewing, and it'd reach the Sink soon. When his gaze returned to face ahead, he was greeted by the tip of his Sparrow slamming into the ground as a figure pounced on it. He proceeded to fly off at lightning speed, only stopping to meet the dirt. Everything was mildly blurry after that point. As he picked himself up off the ground, Anchor flying around applying Glimmer to his wounds, he was met only with –

"Hey there, Exo," Mia said, "Heard you were floating around."

Eta was fuming, as was customary since Cobra had arrived, and he lashed out, throwing a wild punch in her direction. She sidestepped, narrowly avoiding a facial injury.

She scoffed, "That's no way to treat a lady!"

"You broke my Sparrow and…" he paused, rubbing his exposed shoulder as Anchor hovered above it in examination, "My shoulder."

She shrugged, "You'll be fine," as she spun on her heels and redrew her binoculars. "You see that big Vault door?" she asked, pointing ahead to the engagement, "There's your infernal Baroness. There also happens to be our primary objective, so get up there and reinforce Clara and the Fallen."

The Exo grumbled something, his eyes still flared, but he conceded and stormed up the hill, hand cannon at the ready.

"Glad you finally snapped out of that," Anchor commented, noticeably relieved. Eta, however, remained silent. Again. "By the Traveler… not this again," Anchor complained, "Eta, you've gotta talk to me eventually."

"No, I don't," the Exo replied, snapping his barrel to the Thrall ahead and repeatedly squeezing the trigger. Clara was ahead spaying the mass with her pulse rifle, and Makis was above them unloading wire rifle projectiles into the horde. The Servitor, even, sat providing artillery support, while Mia sat far off in the distance with her linear fusion rifle and binoculars to mark targets.

"Wha… you just did!" Anchor whined, annoyed, as the mass of Thrall continued to pile out of the Vault.

"Are they ever gonna stop coming?" Clara shouted over the gunfire.

Eta flicked his revolver, slamming a fresh cylindrical magazine into place, before fan-firing on the crowd and repeating his actions.

Clara ducked behind a smoldering pile of Vex debris and summoned her Ghost, "It'd be _awesome_ if we had a Titan right about now!" she shouted. Hyper nodded, getting the message, and drifted back into phase. Clara glanced back over the debris and took a few bursts at the Taken, yet they just continued to spill out of the Vault until…

"No fucking way," Eta spat. A massive Taken Ogre slowly shambled its way into the sunlight, immediately locking sight with the Exo. A Champion of Savathûn. The Ogre let loose a volley of eye blasts at the Exo, forcing him to retreat behind cover, and he saw Clara dig herself into the dirt to avoid getting singed.

While Eta was behind cover, he heard some loud whirring and then the sound of a massive detonation. He stole a glance out to see the Ogre missing its left arm, leaving in its place only a smoldering, burning stump. The arm that had been previously attached lay scorched on the ground below. The Taken behemoth screamed and set its aim to the sky, furious. Eta stepped out to see what it was the Ogre was looking at and it was –

"Josh!" Clara called, "That was fast!"

"Wait for it," Persephone laughed maniacally over comms, "This thing is fun to fly, by the way, Mia!" Persephone continued evasive maneuvers as she strafe ran the behemoth and the Thrall underfoot.

"Wait, if PC's flying my ship, then where's Josh?" Mia barely managed to squeak out before a bolt of lighting shot from the gunship's rear, magnificently twirling and twinkling through the sky, like a majestic light show. Eventually, though, gravity got the better of it, it seemed, as the bolt shot back down at incredible speed, colliding into the Ogre with unbelievable force, Arc energy erupting all around it. In its wake Josh stood, machine gun already in hand, as he tore apart what was left of the Champion as if it were paper and mowed down a number of Thrall.

"That's our cue!" Mia shouted as she, in the blink of an eye, was suddenly on the frontline with her own machine gun expending round upon round into the Thrall. Clara nodded and tossed her pulse rifle aside and somersaulted, a sword materializing in her grasp, slamming down on the Thrall. Their cries echoed throughout the valley as Eta watched the three Guardians tear them apart, mow them down, silence their screams. But they just kept coming.

Eta figured it'd be wise to draw his own blade, as he ran at the swelling mass of Taken. He slashed, and he cut. He bled (in the sink). They kept coming. Persephone still stayed above letting loose the heavy machine guns on the gunship on the Thrall. Eta thought back to something Eris had mentioned once. "Don't underestimate the Thrall as Tarlowe did," she'd told him, which had actually been referring to _Hive_ Thrall back aboard the Dreadnaught, echoed throughout his head. Something seemed to click, like his aggression and desire to find the Baroness suddenly vanished and clarity rushed back to him. He was outside the Vault of Glass. In front of him stood friends and allies weapons ablaze. In front of him also stood an endless sea of Thrall, all pouring out of the Vault. They didn't really even fight, they just shambled about, constantly being cut down only for another to take its place. Dire.

In an instant, the clarity was gone again. He began to focus on the Vault door. It... called to him. No, that wasn't right. He was definitely called to by something, something... within the Vault. He lifted his sword over his shoulder, barely having even been used, and sheathed it.

"Eta?" he vaguely heard someone shout. He couldn't tell who it was, and it mattered little at that moment. Everything began to blur, except for the door. He crept forward, completely unphased by the Thrall, and them him. They parted for him. The gunfire stopped, and so did the Thrall's squirming. They continued to twitch, though. He pressed on, the sea of Thrall continuing to part for his passage.

His vision, however, started to blur, and his hearing with it. It was like he was being enveloped in a silent void. The last thing he heard was someone's faint voice. It sounded like they'd said, "Should we follow him?" but he couldn't tell. Everything was silent. Everything was dark. He felt a void creeping up on him, like he was… empty. Alone.


	12. Chapter 12: A Song For The Deaf

**Okay so I vaguely recall that I was supposed to get this out like a week and a half ago, but some stuff came up. Sorry guys. But I'm back now! I think. This one's kind of short again, but at this juncture it's going to split into two subplots for a while, so this was more to set it up than anything. I realize the Venus portions of this chapter are a little shorter than the Russia portions but there isn't a whole lot to tell on that front yet.**

 **Anyways, thanks for sticking around, everyone. I'll try to make next chapter a bit longer.**

* * *

"Fantastic," Violet moaned.

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

"This storm is too harsh," she answered, "We're going to have to set the ship down, get inside the Wall or something to try to keep warm. It might be a while before we get back to Venus."

"Well can't we do something about it?" Sarah wondered.

"Afraid not. With the temperature outside the ship, any frost-damage we try to repair now will just get frozen over again and again. It'd be a waste of glimmer and a waste of resources.

Sarah sighed, "How much longer do we have in here?"

Violet made a motion with the edge of her shell that seemed to represent a shrug. "Could be another hour, could be a few minutes. Either way, we've got to set the ship down somewhere."

Sarah thought about it for a moment before reaching a conclusion. "The Rocketyard," she proposed, receiving a confused stare from Violet.

"The Rocketyard?"

"Yes, yes, the Rocketyard! The Devils, they, they... they cut a hole in the Cosmodrome Wall, some time ago, when they broke into the Plaguelands. It is likely still there, and it may be much warmer than it is out in the snow."

Violet finally agreed and began climbing the ship above the Wall. High up above, Sarah gazed out the window at the Wall, which was all she could really see in the blizzard. She could vaguely see little scratches and other holes, burn marks, and the like dotting the top of the structure, which she'd not previously noticed.

"You think there are any Fallen still out here?" Alisa asked, startling Sarah. She hadn't even heard the Warlock get up from her bed and had assumed her asleep. Sarah met her with a grim yet warm expression.

"If there are, they're certainly desperate," she answered, before posing a question of her own, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Alisa said, rolling her shoulders back and stretching, "Just not used to that kind of exertion. I'll be fine."

The air around them seemed tense. Sarah wasn't entirely sure how to proceed as the jumpship slowly meandered over the Cosmodrome Wall, crossing the Divide in a record-breaking short amount of time as the engines failed to produce anything more than a crawl. Sarah stared out into the snow plains below. She saw the frozen-over remains of a Devil Walker collapsed in the snow. She could barely make out bodies dotting the snow, even the remains of a couple Shanks, which… looked recent.

Sarah sighed awkwardly before addressing her companion, "If this ship cannot make it far enough, will you be well enough to travel?"

Alisa chuckled, "I'll be fine. If anyone should be worried, it should be you, Hunter."

Sarah grumbled back, "You know, you're a little cocky for someone as inexperienced as yourself."

"Oh, no," she assured, "No, no, I didn't mean it like that. I just mean that, like, ya know… I'm a Warlock. I can probably warm myself some way or another through Solar manipulation, plus I just have thicker, warmer armor anyways," she said, gesturing to the literal fur lining her neck-piece, "You don't. That's, ya know, not what Hunter's are for. You've got lightweight gear, a precise and agile frame. You're not exactly kitted out for the snow."

"… Alright," Sarah conceded, "I guess I get your point. I apologize for misjudging you."

"Oh, don't sweat it," Alisa shrugged it off, "I totally get where you were coming from, it's – "

"Engine One is out!" Violet shot from across the cabin, "Engine Two doesn't have much time left, either. I'd suggest you brace for impact, you two."

"Right," Sarah acknowledged, grabbing her sniper rifle and fastening it to her back, Alisa also grabbing her own sniper rifle, a relic of the old Crucible, and doing the same.

"I'd put your bucket on if I were you," Alisa inclined, calling her Ghost over to ask, "You still have Obsidian Mind somewhere down in the vault?" prompting a nod from her Ghost. The solid black, glossy helmet materialized in her hands, and she slid it over her head, letting it lock into place.

"Uhh… bucket?" Sarah asked, staring in a mixture of awe and confusion.

"Yeah, you know, your bucket. Your helmet?" Alisa explained, "It's _slang_ , Sarah."

"Right," she slowly affirmed, grabbing her own helmet she'd had latched on her belt and letting it slide over her head, feeling the warm air suddenly shut out upon the helmet being latched to the neck-piece. It wasn't quite cold, though. Just… not warm, anymore. Her HUD lit up in front of her eyes, informing her that they were still in the Divide. Something else she saw, and felt, was that their altitude was decreasing. Fast.

She hadn't even totally comprehended it before Alisa grabbed her hand, inciting her to glance in her direction.

"Come on!" Alisa shouted, the hatch already open, which she hadn't heard. The wind must've been obnoxiously loud, screaming throughout the ship. But she couldn't hear. She figured she needed to adjust her helmet again when –

"Sarah! Come on!" Alisa shouted again, snapping her back to focus. She kept getting distracted. Alisa pulled her to the hatch. She could see now that they were quite close to the ground.

"Hold on to me!" she advised. Sarah grabbed hold, suddenly not losing altitude anymore. They were now slowly gliding to the ground while the ship slammed into a bit of highway. The damn thing erupted in flames, one of its wings entirely detaching from the hull and falling to the snow below. Bits and pieces continued to shoot out of the explosion, raining fire.

Eventually, the two finally landed on the ground. Alisa put her finger to a little circle on the side of her helmet, and the front visor faded from black to translucent, her motherly smile already visible.

"You okay?" she asked the Awoken. She wrapped her arms around her to keep them warm and, perhaps, for other reasons.

She hacked up her lungs, not adjusting to the cold. "You're not worried about your ship?" she asked.

"There isn't a whole lot that can be done about it right now. We need to wait out the storm, and then we'll see about fixing my ship."

"Shouldn't we..." Sarah began, pausing to shiver, "Attempt to contact the remainder of our fireteams, back on Venus?"

"No," Alisa assured her, "We'll worry about that later, just like the ship. Right now, top priority is getting to shelter."

"That bit of the Wall in the Rocketyard is still a decent walk from here," Violet commented as she materialized in front of the pair, "We might want to drive there."

"Right," Alisa agreed, "Do you have a Sparrow?"

"Oui, don't you?" Sarah replied.

"Nope, haven't gotten around to it. Haven't needed one."

"Right," Sarah said, "Yes, yes, alright. Get me my Sparrow, Lethal."

* * *

"Should we follow him?" Clara asked the group as the sea of Thrall sat motionless, aside from their twitching. Eta slowly meandered his way through, the Taken seeming to part for him, granting him passage.

"We've got to," Josh shouted over the Taken chattering, turning to Mia, "Mia, hold ground up here, and keep an eye on your comms."

"What?" the German annoyedley replied, "Why? There's no way it'll be able to reach into the Vault since, you know, it's outside of space and time. You know that, right?"

"It's not for us," he shook his head, "It's for the other two. If they call for us, or if they try to reach us, or they get back or _something_ , then you can inform them of our location and, if need be, _then_ enter the Vault with the two of them at your side."

"So what about you?" she asked.

"Well, didn't you hear?" he replied, giving a display of grandeur, "We're gonna follow that Exo into the Vault," he concluded, pointing at the doorway, where, rather than Eta, was a sea of Taken Thrall, making him unsure if they'd devoured him or let him pass.

"We should prolly get movin', love," Clara quipped.

"Right."

Mia glanced off away from the crowd to see the Baroness still alive, but with her blades lowered. She looked unhappy, but her Servitor and Vandal flanked her, providing what little they could in the way of protection. Mia, in comparison, was similarly unhappy, not wanting to have to wait outside with the Fallen, who's language she did not speak.

"Stay safe," she whispered as the two clambered through. She looked onward in some level of disappointment. She certainly didn't want to be left up here, virtually alone. She pondered testing communications, but the two hadn't called them at all in the time they'd been gone, so it seemed like a fruitless effort.

* * *

"You know, this was a pretty good idea of yours to hunker down in here," Alisa commented, "I had no idea the Devils had done such extensive... interior design." Even after so long, it looked as if some Devils had been keeping up the place. Random pipes, metal bits and pieces, wires, concrete, all of it jutted out at irregular angles all over the place, some of which still burnt from the incessant blow-torching of their little worker drones that fluttered about, looking like smaller Shanks. Once the inside of the great Russian Wall, now a hollowed-out series of catwalks and beams, a pathway to the true Russian frontier in the Plaguelands. Where what was left of SIVA lie. Some of SIVA's old crimson tendrils still glowed about, moving slightly, but they looked faded. Empty.

Sarah scoffed a little, "What makes you think it was my idea?"

"Don't be daft, I heard you propose it," Alisa affirmed, "I'm not deaf."

"Hmm," Sarah sighed in reply. The crackling of the fire they'd managed filled the silence between the two, not helped by the Ghosts' apathy to speak. Sarah continued to feel some sort of tension, the same sort she'd felt aboard the jumpship as it was sputtering out of time. She had burning questions in the back of her mind, but another lurking hesitation deep in her core, as if they were... wrong. She, however, refused to yield.

"So, Alisa," she managed, combating her own anxieties, "Are you, uh... going to, at any point, explain your... 'Warlock Magic?'"

"What, when I channeled Arc energy in such a way, a way that flooded raw, electric power through and out of my entire being, that I was able to create a rift in space and time for a short period of time, void of the worries of the outside world, long enough for you to briefly reunite with your former friend before I collapsed under the weight of it's power? You mean that?"

"Uhh... yes," she hesitantly confirmed, " _That_."

"Oh," Alisa shrugged it off, humble as ever, "That was _nothing_."

"Really?" she pressed, "It didn't... _seem_ like nothing."

Alisa's eyes kind of focused intently in response, her brow furrowing a little bit, yielding silence until she finally replied, "Well... I guess it wasn't nothing to me, per se. But, I mean that, more, in the grand scheme of the Warlock Order, it's nothing, ya know? Warlocks can channel the Light in a lot of ways people don't think about, and no one outside the Order ever really seems to know about. I guess we just don't really expose it too often. Hell, it might've been a breach of code for me to do that or something. I don't know. As contradictory as it may sound," she glanced at her companion, leaning against a steel pillar holding up the roof, "I'm not entirely read up on all the Warlock texts. I've... only been alive for so long and I've had a lot to do. I try to spend my time reading up on it, but things seem to come up a lot."

"Such as?"

She cleared her throat before beginning, "Umm... well, I, uh... I guess there's Rhino, or, more specifically, Pilot. Pilot-8. He and his fireteam happened to be at the Tower when I first arrived, and they were kind enough to lend me a hand in learning about being a Guardian. Next thing I know, Ghaul attacks the Tower, which I'd only known for a brief time, and, luckily, I was out with Rhino on Luna when it happened, but... it hurt. We were marooned there for weeks before we ever got word that Ghaul was dead, and even longer before we felt it. The Light came back to us, however slowly.

"I've... spent a lot of time with Pilot. I would trust him with my life. When I'm not reading up on Warlock texts, practicing, or attending lectures, I'm usually with him and/or his fireteam. Sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not. I never officially joined the team, though. I wanted to be my own person. Pilot gets that. I don't think he quite likes it, but he gets it."

She got quiet after that, and the last few words sounded a little choked. Sarah quickly gathered to change the subject.

"So, all this SIVA tech around here… you familiar with it?" she asked.

"Yeah, the Cosmodrome was still crawling with Splicers when I was revived, although at the time I knew not. Lot of regular Devils, too, though. They had an Archon, too. Woke me up one snow-filled morning while I was still camped out in Dock 13. Barely made it out alive. That was when I first saw another Guardian, and that's the only way I got out."

"A Guardian?" she asked, "Who was it?"

Alisa let a brief smile grace her lips before answering, "Josh."

* * *

It seemed as though hours had passed for Josh and Clara. They quite slowly descended the passage through the Vault, seeing less and less Taken, yet still the occasional glimmer of their vigilance. Hobgoblins and Vandals up high staring at them, and Minotaurs only barely visible in the shadows. It was like they were expected. But they weren't shooting. They came around a bend and through a tunnel to see the old loot chest in front of the way forward, but it was closed off, and the chest was empty. This used to lead to the Templar's Well, if Josh's memory served him right. Eta stopped at the wall.

"You okay, bud?" Josh asked his friend, but finding him still incapable of response. Or unwilling. Or both. He knew not.

"Uhh... Anchor? You with us?" Josh asked.

"Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, yes, I am," the silver Ghost replied as he materialized facing the humans behind Eta.

"Do you have any idea what -" Clara began.

Anchor stopped her with an almost instantaneous reply, "No. Not a clue. It's like earlier when he was chasing that damned Baroness," he said as he began to float around Eta, examining him, "I can't see into his head. I have absolutely no clue what's going on inside that metal frame of his."

Persephone sighed as she exited phase for the first time in what felt like years, "Do we just sit here and wait for something to happen, then? This is absurd!"

"Ugh," Clara dejectedly grumbled, "And there's more of that awful Taken gunk here," she commented as she glanced over the edge of the cliff-side. Seeing her direction, Josh stepped over to the cliff-side along with Clara, which gave him an idea.

"Hey," he exclaimed, turning to her, "What about the secret passage through the Jungle?"

"The Jungle?" Anchor asked, his shell bubbling up in curiosity.

"Yeah, yeah, off this cliff-side, out there in the distance," he pointed, "See those platforms and how they lead off somewhere? Well, that used to be a secret passage. Someone went looking once and found a dead Ghost, but they also, after a while of searching, found another way into the Well."

"What about Eta?" Clara asked.

The Titan glanced back in response, seeing the robotic Hunter still standing in front of the wall. Motionless. "Perhaps we force him?" Josh proposed.

Clara gave him a curious stare before realization dawned on her. "No," she protested, "You can't be serious."

"I am one-hundred percent serious," Josh replied, arms crossed.

"By the Traveler," she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose as if it would ease the frustration, "He's made of metal, Josh. He weighs 3 tons. How exactly do you plan to accomplish that?"

Josh rubbed his chin, as he usually did before proposing some ludicrous idea. "What if..." he began, "We pushed him off the cliff and just brought Anchor with us and resurrected him later?"

"I..." she immediately stuttered, "Would... that work, Anchor?"

"I'm not sure," the little silver Ghost replied, "I don't even know if I have the capacity to resurrect him right now, what with my lack of a connection to him. It might be wiser to proceed with a simpler solution."

"And what's that?" Clara asked.

"Blow the wall."


End file.
